


teach me to fly, teach me to live

by always_an_anxious_mess



Category: Minecraft - Fandom, Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Another wingfic, Found Family, I’m writing this mostly for my own comfort, but slightly different, everything is platonic, i hope y’all enjoy it though, no relationships - Freeform, thats gross don’t ship real people
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:01:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 37,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27054598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/always_an_anxious_mess/pseuds/always_an_anxious_mess
Summary: Tommy’s been on his own for years. He’s managed though, he’s always managed. He doesn’t need anyone else.He’s learned to steal, learned to hide his wings. Learned to lie, to manipulate.So why does he agree when this random guy asks him to stay the night so the man isn’t worrying about him?
Comments: 1916
Kudos: 4850
Collections: Fics for when I finally convince my friend to leave wattpad for ao3, Found family to make me feel something, MCYT Fic Rec, Noice, Tommy and Tubbo Friendship Supremacy





	1. Chapter 1

Tommy had been on the streets for years. 

Ever since he was about nine, he’s been flicking between towns, stealing what he needed and going to the next town when he’s taken to much and someone tries to grab him. 

All he knew? His parents dropped him off at a wingfolk-friendly orphanage when he was a baby. The place got razed to the ground a few years later, the people who ran it and the kids inside got chased out. 

Tommy had seen some children killed that night.

He had run, had kept running. He was caught, but escaped with nothing but scars. He kept running.

He learned to steal, learned to hide his wings, learned to manipulate, to lie. 

He kept running.

_The whole starving kid thing worked a lot better when I was a kid,_ Tommy wiped the blood from his chin, ignoring the fierce pain as his wrist brushed against the spot he’d been punched on his jaw. But he had succeeded getting away with some coins. A little bruises were worth his next meal. 

He ducked into the woods just outside town, deciding to lie low until he was forgotten before he went out and bought something. Tommy wasn’t hard to forget, he knew. He wasn’t the only dirty, ragged boy roaming the streets. The people in that town would forget his face before the sun set, he knew. And then, he would eat something proper for the first time in two days.

He did find other ways to get food in the years its been since he ran from the burning orphanage. If he went north, sweet red berries were good in a pinch, though the thorns could cause nasty cuts. Squirrels were surprisingly easy to kill with rocks and sticks, though he didn’t always find one. Rabbits were very hard, but they had more meat on them than squirrels did, and they were more reliable to find in winter. He was surprisingly good at fishing with a sharp wooden stick. 

But the woods weren’t reliable. The only things he’d eaten in the past few days were a few loaves of stale, burned bread he’d found behind a bakery last week. There was only half of a loaf left. 

Tommy climbed into a tree, checking where the sun was in the sky. It was about noon. He could take a nap now, pick up something to eat before sunset, and move on from this town at night when the stars were out to guide his way. 

_West,_ he decided as his eyes drifted shut. _Tonight I’ll go west, and we’ll see what’s out there._

———

He woke up, almost falling out of the tree from the violent jerk his body made when his eyes snapped open. Tommy stiffened, one arm wrapping around a nearby branch as he shook slightly from the adrenaline coursing through his veins. Once he was sure that he wasn’t going to topple out of the tree, he sighed, unhooking his arm.

Tommy slid down the trunk until his feet touched the ground, lightly enough that if anyone was nearby they wouldn’t be able to hear his feet hitting the grass. 

His hand found the pocket that contained the coins he had stolen earlier that day. He looked up at the sky. It was late afternoon, the sun slowly slinking towards the horizon. 

Tommy’s stomach growled, but he paid no notice to it, as hunger pains were not a new thing to him. He went towards a nearby stream, scrubbing uselessly at the dirt that he could feel on his face. He paid little attention to the quickly swelling source of pain on his jaw, but he knew it was probably purple and blue. 

He stood up, walking as quietly as he could until he was on the outskirts of the town again. Tommy moved quickly. Most stalls were packing up, but he could smell someone still cooking not far. His stomach rumbled again and his mouth started to water. 

Decent food, he hummed, his pace speeding up even further until he reached the stall. It was selling sandwiches, thinly cut chicken on warm bread with cheese.

“How much for one?” Tommy asked the vendor, his voice instinctively switching to a shaky voice. 

The woman behind the counter took one look at him and sneered. “Scram, kid. You got nothin’ I want.”

“Ma’am, I have money. I just want a sandwich,” Tommy pulled the coins out of his pocket and held them out in his hand.

“And where’d you get it? You steal it?” She spat. “You must be new in town. We don’t tolerate brats walking around using stolen money to buy food. You got a nice shiner on your jaw there, betcha got that while stealing those coins. Now scram! Sort through the trash or something. Find someone else to sell food to you. I don’t take rat money.”

Tommy stepped back, closing his hand around the coins and stuffing them back in his pocket. He managed to fight back the sneer that was trying to worm it’s way onto his face. He turned and started to walk away, hearing another man stepping forward to order a sandwich. 

“Hey!”

Tommy clenched his fists and turned around, expecting another person to start screaming at him about “rat money”.

There was a man, shorter than him, with a weird hat on top of his head and messy blonde hair. He held a hot sandwich, must have been purchased from the same lady who’d just turned Tommy away. 

“Here,” the man held out the sandwich.

Tommy stared at it, another growl rumbling through his stomach. He stared, but didn’t move to take it. 

“That woman treated you like crap. You don’t deserve it. You’re still a kid,” the man took a small step forward, his arm still extended with the sandwich. “I know you must be hungry. Just take it.”

Tommy’s gaze moved from the sandwich to the man’s face, he searched his eyes. There was no malice there, just sympathy.

His gaze went back to the sandwich, and he quickly lunged forward, snatching the food out of the man’s hand violently and scooting backward again. Tommy held the sandwich against his chest protectively, backing up another few steps. 

The man smiled, and it seemed to be genuine. They continued to maintain eye contact, Tommy’s gaze full of distrust, while the man seemed to just be happy that he had taken the sandwich. 

“I didn’t poison it, if that’s what you’re worried about,” the man raised an eyebrow with a soft laugh. “I thought you’d leave after you took it. That’s what I did, back when I was in your position. I know you don’t trust me, I don’t blame you. Do you want me to leave first so you’ll eat it?”

Tommy didn’t know what to make of this guy. He was strange. No one had ever given him something for free. Even the orphanage made him finish chores before he was allowed to eat. No one had ever treated him like this before. He was used to being pitied, back when he was little, but no one did anything to help him, even then. 

He reached into his pocket, finding the coins, he picked a couple out and was preparing to toss them to the man when he laughed.

“No no, none of that,” the man smiled. “You keep those for any other things you need. I’m sure it’s not just for food. I wish I could give you something other than a sandwich, but I have others that I’m responsible for. I’m very sorry.”

“Why?” Tommy asked quietly, his voice normal instead of the trembly, weak thing he usually put on when he was begging. “Why give me anything at all, if you’ve got people to look out for? There’s other kids in this town that go hungry too. At least I can find food in the woods if I have to. Why me?”

“Because those kids are more likely to be treated fairly than you are,” the man’s smile turned sad. “You’re wingfolk, right?” Tommy froze, his eyes narrowing as he took another step back. “I can tell by the way you hold yourself. As I’m sure you know already, this world isn’t kind to wingfolk.”

Tommy chuckled bitterly. “Oh yes, I’m well aware.” He felt his wing muscles move, his wings wanting to push out from beneath his skin as he thought about them. But he willed them to stay where they were. “Thanks for the sandwich, stranger. I’d say I’ll see you around, but I won’t.”

He turned to leave, but was stopped by the man once more. 

“Do you need a place to stay?” The man asked, his voice growing quieter as he continued. “Even if only one night. The one’s I’m responsible for, they’re wingfolk too. I just want to make sure you’re okay. You’re just a kid.”

“I’m taller than you,” Tommy retorted. 

“Just because you’re taller doesn’t mean you’re older,” the man chuckled. 

Tommy blinked, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him before. It was annoying.

“Just one night,” the man continued. “One night, and then you can leave and I won’t stop you. Just one night, so I don’t have to worry about your wellbeing.”

Tommy narrowed his eyes further. As nice as he’s been, there was a reason he didn’t trust easily. There was a reason he’s been on his own for so long.

“One night,” he agreed, reluctantly.


	2. Chapter 2

The man’s name turned out to be Phil, and he said he was wingfolk too.

Tommy was scarfing down the sandwich that Phil had given to him, tearing chunks off and stuffing them in his mouth while the bread was still warm. It was the best thing he’d eaten in probably his whole life, considering his usual diet consisted of burnt squirrel and whatever he could find that technically could be considered edible in trash cans.

Phil had asked for Tommy’s name, but he hadn’t answered.

“You’re very loud,” Tommy commented quietly when he was done with the sandwich. “You’re footsteps.”

Phil looked somewhat confused, but shrugged. “No one out here to worry about hearing me. Except for the others, of course.”

“The others,” Tommy glanced at him. “How many?”

“Just the three,” Phil smiled. “Wilbur, the oldest, then Techno, and then Tubbo,”

“Your sons?”

Phil laughed, causing Tommy to jump slightly. “In a way, yeah. They call me dad sometimes, as a joke. But I’m really not much older than they are.”

“Brothers, then,” Tommy hummed.

“I suppose,”

They continued to walk, with no noise other than Phil’s footsteps and, if you listened very carefully, you could hear Tommy’s too.

“How long have you been on your own?” Phil asked.

Tommy didn’t reply, didn’t even look at him. The guy was nice, yeah, but a lot of people are nice when they only want something.

“How old are you?”

No answer.

Phil seemed to get the hint, as the rest of their walking was done in relative silence. Tommy’s hand went into his pocket and he ran his fingers over the coins there, as if reassuring himself that they still existed.

The sun had slunk beneath the horizon, with only a few remnants of its light towards the west, when Tommy spotted a building through the trees.

When they emerged into the clearing where the building was, Tommy saw a boy outside of what he now recognized as a house.

The boy was short, with brown hair, and he was guiding a goat towards a nearby pen with a few other goats inside of it. But what caught Tommy’s eye the most was his wings.

He had four wings, two larger and two smaller, shaped like a dragonfly’s or a wasp’s, but with black spines and transparent yellow membrane. They came through holes in the back of his shirt. They flicked every now and then, but didn’t move in a way that would signal he was trying to fly. The boy’s wings just seemed to be active.

This boy had his wings visible. For anyone to see.

“Tubbo!” Phil called with a smile.

The boy turned around, his face lighting up. “Hey Phil! We were wondering what was taking you so long!” His face then fell. “Who’s this?” He said, still trying to sound cheerful, but Tommy noticed that his wings were stilling, and soon he couldn’t see them at all.

“He’s staying the night,” Phil reassured him, and did some kind of weird hand gesture. The boy name Tubbo visibly relaxed, and a few seconds later, his insect wings were visible again.

“Techno and Wilbur are supposed to be cleaning up,” Tubbo smiled. “Let me put away Nira real quick and I’ll be inside in a second.”

Phil nodded, smiled again, and beckoned for Tommy to come with him. Slightly regretting his choice to come out here, he did, following the man inside the stone building.

They entered into a room that had a kitchen on one side and a fireplace and stairs on the other. There were two men standing in the room, they looked to be in their early twenties. Both had their wings out.

Phil had hung up his long jacket on a nearby post that held other fabrics, and when Tommy turned back to look at him, Phil had also let his wings out.

“You’re safe in here,” Phil said, seeing Tommy’s astonished look. “We’ve lived here for years and no one’s ever found us. You can let them out if you want.”

Tommy made no move to do so, even though he could feel his wing muscles poking uncomfortably at the scars on his back that would normally let them out at the thought.

It freaked him out, just a bit. Made him nervous that they had their wings out. He’d gotten used to the habit of keeping his wings underneath his skin, he wasn’t sure when the last time he actually saw them was.

Phil had feathered wings, and his feathers were a shiny black color that looked dark green if you saw at it in the right lighting.

The other two men were staring at Tommy oddly. The taller one had four wings that looked similar to a butterfly’s, but the way he held them made it look like he only had two. They were a yellow color that turned dark brown at the edges, and had spots of white every now and then.

The one that was shorter, but still close to Tommy’s height, had leathery brown wings, the membranes of which looked slightly see-through when the light was behind him. It kind of reminded him of what a bat’s wings would look like.

“Another one?” Butterfly asked with a smile. “Last time you dragged a kid home they never left.”

“You’ve waited six years and I disappoint you every morning,” Tubbo chuckled, coming in from outside. “But you love me.”

“We do,” Butterfly agreed.

“I didn’t drag him home,” Phil protested. “He’s just staying the night.”

“But you can stay for longer if you want!” Tubbo grinned at Tommy, his wings flicking excitedly. “You look like you’re my age. It’d be nice to have someone to talk to that actually took me seriously. How old are you?”

Tommy felt very overwhelmed at the amount of people looking at him, and his fingers tapped the coins in his pocket nervously. He shrugged in response. He didn’t know why he responded at all.

“Really?” Tubbo looked shocked. “How do you not know?”

Despite not wanting to say anything, Tommy felt his mouth open and he started speaking anyway.

“Never really thought about it,” Tommy admitted. “Had other things to worry about, I guess,”

_Like food, and getting lost, and whether I was going to survive snow-season, and if I was going to get killed because of my wings,_ he mentally added.

“How about I show you where you can sleep tonight?” Phil asked. Tommy shrugged again in response. “Great! Techno, you’re with Wilbur tonight,”

Bat groaned. “Do I have to?”

“Yes, because he’s our guest and he’s not sleeping on the floor,” Phil replied sternly. “Come on...” Phil looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to say his name.

Tommy stared back at him, defiant. Instead of answering, he just followed the man up the stairs and into a small room. It had several wooden structures in it, including one that had large sheets of fabric thrown across it. Its shape looked familiar, but he couldn’t recall its name. He did remember that you were supposed to sleep on it, though.

The other wooden structures he didn’t have names or functions for. Phil walked over to the tallest one and pulled on something. A little door swung open, revealing it was hollow inside and full of fabric. Phil took a few items from it and shut the little door, before turning around and offering them to Tommy.

“You and Techno are the same height, so these should fit you fine,” Phil reassured him. “It’s the least I can do.”

Tommy stared at Phil for a moment, before taking the fabric from him.

Phil’s expression brightened at this action, and he turned and grabbed a leather strip with a shiny end. “The pants may be a bit big, considering how thin you are. So you might need this.” Tommy took the weird leather thing too. “I’ll leave you be now. Just... don’t take off before I wake up? Let me give you a decent breakfast.”

Tommy stared at Phil, wondering what “breakfast” was and why he was trying to give it to him decent.

Phil seemed to take his silence as an answer, as he deflated slightly but smiled nonetheless. “I’ll see you tomorrow, hopefully,”

With that, he left the room, leaving Tommy standing there holding items he couldn’t identify, in a room full of things he couldn’t identify. Except for-

_HOLY SHIT IS THAT A SWORD?!_

Tommy startled away from the gleaming sword leaning against the wall. He didn’t like swords. The people that chased him down from the orphanage used swords. They used swords on him.

He put the things that Phil handed him on the floor, and took one of the fabric sheets from the bed and threw it over the sword so he didn’t have to look at it. That made him feel a little better.

He picked up one of the items that Phil had given him. When he picked it up, it unraveled, and Tommy realized it was a dark red shirt, with holes sliced in the back.

But most of all? It was clean!

He hadn’t had clean clothes in a long time. They were a luxury, considering he slept in trees and didn’t have the ability to wash off without getting nervous about predators and people seeing the scars on his back that signified he was wingfolk.

Tommy picked up the other fabric, identifying it as pants. Clean, black pants, with no tears on the knees or at the hems.

He quickly changed into the clothes that he’d been provided with. He couldn’t get the pants to stay up around his waist, as his was much smaller than this “techno”’s. But he also couldn’t figure out how to use the leather strip that Phil had given him to help with the issue. He ended up just taking the two ends and tying them together in a knot. It worked, even if it looked a bit weird.

The metal bit he could probably sell though, now that he thought about it. He’d have to figure out how to rip it off tomorrow.

It was weird how the pants reached his feet. He wasn’t used to that. His other pants stopped after the bend in his leg, about midway between the bend and his foot.

Tommy jumped slightly, remembering the money in his old pair of pants. He dug it out and stuffed it in a pocket in the new pants instead.

He was tired, but he wasn’t sure where he was supposed to sleep. The wooden thing in the corner was meant for sleep, he knew, but he didn’t want to sleep there. He wanted to be hidden, like usual.

Tommy looked around the room, trying to find somewhere that would fit him that he’d feel more safe to sleep.

Eventually, he decided he was going to sleep underneath the structure with fabric. There were a lot of things under there, so he shoved them out from underneath until he could fit.

He did feel safe down here. All the stuff underneath would make him hard to spot, and if anyone came in the room, no one would be able to see him.

That’s the last thing Tommy remembered thinking of before he drifted off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the way I wrote this might be a bit weird. From Tommy’s perspective, he doesn’t remember what most things are called or what they’re used for in a house setting, because he hasn’t been in a house in many years. I imagine when you’re trying to survive in the woods, you aren’t going to be worrying about what a dresser is called or what breakfast means. So if you’re confused, sorry.


	3. Chapter 3

Tommy woke with a jolt, his eyes snapping open immediately. He didn’t recognize his surroundings. Had he not found a good tree to climb last night and wiggled his way into a shallow cave instead?

Then he remembered. Phil. The sandwich. Phil and the three others who had their wings out without a care in the world. Like they weren’t terrified to be seen. The new clothes. Underneath the structure.

He wasn’t sure what had woken him up, until there was a small creaking noise coming from the door to his room.

“He’s gone!” There was a shout, Tommy wasn’t sure which one it was. He stayed very still. If they were looking for him, they probably had bad intentions. Best to stay here until there was a chance for him to run.

“He couldn’t have run,” a different person this time, in a rather bored voice. “The front door was locked from the inside. He wouldn’t have been able to run out and lock the door behind him. The windows don’t open either.”

“Let’s check to see if any of the windows are broken,” that was Phil. It sounded like him.

Rapid footsteps, leading away from the room. Tommy waited a few moments, then scrambled to crawl out from underneath the wooden structure. He was halfway out before he froze at the sound of laughter from the doorway.

“Were you under the bed?” Butterfly asked, obviously trying not to smile too widely.

Tommy gave him a defiant look and scooted back underneath the “bed”. This only seemed to incite more laughter from Butterfly, though. He heard footsteps approaching the door again.

“What’s up?” The bored one asked.

“He’s down there,” Butterfly replied. “Under the bed. I caught him crawling out as I was walking by. He went back under.”

There was giggling coming from the first voice Tommy had heard, and a sigh from someone else. There were more footsteps, and Tommy saw a pair of feet come around the “bed” and stop. The person crouched down, and then there was Phil’s face, staring right at him.

“Why are you down there?” His tone wasn’t accusatory, just curious.

“.... Safer,” Tommy mumbled, avoiding eye contact. “No one can see me when they walk in.”

“Do you want to come out?”

Tommy looked up and met Phil’s eyes again, unsure. He took a deep breath and started crawling back out, Phil stepping back as he did so. Once he was standing up, his back flared with pain and he winced as it cracked slightly. His wings were especially active that morning, and since they were still under his skin, they were hurting a lot. It’d been gradually getting worse over the past week

“Yeeesh kid, you slept with your wings in?” Bat asked. He was the one who’d sounded bored earlier.

Tommy nodded. Everyone immediately winced.

“Ouch,” Butterfly said, sympathy showing through his voice. “I do not want to be you right now.”

Tommy wasn’t exactly sure why they felt so bad about him sleeping with his wings in. He did it all the time. Yes, it was painful, but it was necessary to survive.

“We can leave so you can stretch them out, if you’re not comfortable showing us,” Tubbo offered.

“Ah, no,” Tommy shrugged. “It’s fine, I do it all the time. Used to it.”

Everybody’s look of sympathy immediately went to concern.

“All the time?” Phil echoed.

“You’re going to ruin your wings like that, kid,” Bat pointed out.

_And I use them for what, exactly?_ Tommy retorted, mentally. _They’re an inconvenience anyway. I don’t care._

Phil seemed to take Tommy’s silence as a signal for him to change the subject. “Let’s go eat, I did promise you breakfast before you left.”

Tommy nodded, following them down the stairs as he wondered again what “breakfast” was. Something related to food, it seemed.

It was definitely related to food, it turned out, as when he came down the stairs saw a table covered in food. It smelled delicious, and his mouth was watering.

Once everybody sat down, he watched them, hesitant, as they took different food items and used shiny metal things to put the food on white, cold disks. Tubbo, sensing his confusion, took his white disk and put some of everything on it for him. Even still, he waited until he saw everyone eating before he started, just so he knew everything was actually edible, as he didn’t recognize half of what was in front of him.

Tommy saw that the others were using more shiny metal things to eat, but he didn’t know how to use them, so he just used his hands. The yellow and white fluffy stuff that was in a pile on his white disk tasted fantastic, and so did the slices of what he assumed was pork.

He stopped when he noticed everyone was staring at him.

“I- I’m sorry?” He was confused, tucking his hands away.

“Here,” Tubbo, who was sitting next to him, smiled. “You take this,” the boy picked up one of the shiny things and stabbed the fluffy stuff with it. When he lifted it up, the fluffy stuff stayed on the shiny thing. “Like that! And then you eat it,”

Tommy, confused, picked the fluffy stuff off the shiny thing with his fingers and ate it

“No, no,” Tubbo stabbed it again, this time with his own shiny thing. “You put the fork in your mouth, and take the eggs off the fork, and take the fork out of your mouth.” Tubbo put the “fork” in his mouth, and then pulled it out, and the “eggs” were gone.

Tommy stared at him blankly. “Why not just use your fingers?”

Tubbo shrugged. “So your hands stay clean? I don’t know.”

“... How long have you been on your own?” Phil asked.

Tommy paused, trying to think. He wasn’t sure why he was planning on answering the question, but he was.

“I don’t know. One year is once all four seasons happen right?” Tommy shrugged.

Butterfly nodded.

“So...” he counted on his fingers. “Six... maybe seven years?”

“I know we asked last night, but are you sure you don’t know how old you are?” Phil asked, looking sad.

“I think I was nine when the orphanage burned down,” why was he saying this? “So that’d make me...” he tried counting on his fingers again, but he didn’t remember any numbers that came after twelve. “O-older than twelve? I can’t think of a number higher than that.”

There was silence as they all stared at him, for several seconds.

“Sixteen,” Bat told him. “That’d make you sixteen. Nine plus seven is sixteen.”

“Right, I knew that,”

The rest of the breakfast was eaten in silence. Tommy did try to use the fork as Tubbo had shown him, but it was hard. It didn’t feel right in his hands, and he preferred using his fingers, but he used the fork anyway. He didn’t end up eating half of what was on his plate, as his appetite was small due to being used to being hungry all the time.

Since he stopped eating first, he went into his own thoughts as the rest of them finished.

Did he even want to leave? Phil was nice, Tubbo was nice. Butterfly and Bat both seemed to be nice, but Tommy hadn’t had much interaction with them. It was warm here. He felt safe. They gave him clothes, food, a place to sleep. Did he really want to leave them behind, go back to starving in the woods, in fear?

Why did he trust them so much? He barely knew them. Yeah, they seemed nice. But a lot of people seemed nice just because they wanted something from him. He made the mistake of trusting people back when he was young, and look where that got him, permanently scarred.

But these were wingfolk. Like him. They lived without fear, out in the woods. They seemed happy. Tommy hadn’t seen any other wingfolk since the orphanage burned down. Were wingfolk different then humans? Should he trust them?

I don’t want to leave, Tommy realized suddenly as Tubbo grabbed his disk that had food still on it. I want to stay here.

“Is there anything I can do for you before you go?” Phil asked him. “If you still want to leave, that is? The four of us talked about it, and we’d be happy to let you stay here if that’s what you want.”

Tommy hesitated, glancing at Phil’s wings, and then at Tubbo’s, Butterfly’s, and Bat’s. Could he be comfortable enough to have his wings out like they did? Could he be happy here? Did he really want to leave and go back to wondering if he was going to survive to see the sun rise the next morning?

“Can-” Tommy cut himself off, unsure of what he was going to say next. “C-can I stay?”

“If that’s what you want,” Phil smiled.

Tommy nodded. “I want to stay. If you’ll have me. My name- my name is Tommy,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rich text is??? So much easier to format that HTML??? I’ve just discovered this


	4. Chapter 4

It was afternoon now. He’d spent the day learning how things worked here at the farm, and what he was supposed to do.

“Why do you where your belt like that?” Tubbo suddenly turned and asked suddenly, startling Tommy.

“My what?” He asked,

“Your belt,” Tubbo pointed at the leather strip he had tied around his waist last night.

“I couldn’t figure it out. Phil said it was to keep the pants up because they’re big on me.”

“Alright, I’ll show you how to do it later,” Tubbo sounded like he was trying not to laugh. His wings were flicking, which Tommy assumed was due to him being amused.

Tommy heard footsteps coming from behind them and turned. Bat was walking past.

“Hey kid, you’re wings are going to get cramped if you hold them underneath your skin for too long. Stretch ‘em out soon, okay?” Bat called.

“It’s fine, this isn’t the longest time I’ve held them in,” Tommy shrugged. “I did it for the whole snow-season recently.”

“Snow-season, you mean winter?” Tubbo asked, a horrified look crossing his face. “You once had your wings in your back for an entire winter?”

“Yeah? I’m used to it,” Tommy glanced at him. Why was he so concerned? “I don’t have- I didn’t have a place to have to let them out whenever I wanted without worrying about who could see me, especially during the snow-season when there are more people out in the woods hunting.”

“How long have your wings been stuck in your back?” Bat asked, his face looking grim.

Tommy counted on his fingers, trying to recall what the moon looked like last night versus the night he remembered his wings being out last. “Last night the moon was half-full, shrinking. Last time they were out was before the full moon.”

“Almost three weeks,” it wasn’t a question, but Tommy nodded in agreement anyway.

“Tommy, you’ll ruin your wings like that,” Tubbo sounded concerned. “How are you standing right now? You must be in so much pain.”

“I told you, I’m used to it,” Tommy’s voice turned defensive. “I didn’t live in a place where I could have them out at all times whenever I felt like it. It was different for me. I lived in fear for years.”

“But you don’t have to be afraid now,” Tubbo replied. “You’re with us! We have our wings out all the time, unless we spot a human nearby. You can have your wings out now.”

Tommy swallowed. _Who knows how they’ll look when I take them out again?_

The real reason he hadn’t let his wings out in such a long time recently was because he was scared. The last time he’d tried to take them out, there was so much blood everywhere. The scars that hid his wings bled when he took them out. It absolutely covered his wings, and they hurt so bad. They weren’t folding correctly, they barely even moved until he put them away. He was scared what they’d look like now.

He had to steal a new shirt last time he’d taken his wings out. Because the blood was everywhere.

But he wasn’t going to tell them that.

Tommy turned, and Bat was gone. Who knows where he had went.

———

Tubbo had been silent the rest of the day, only speaking when it was to tell Tommy how to take care of the goats and other animals they had.

By the time they had sat down for dinner, Tommy’s back was in more pain than it had been that morning. Tubbo was right, his wings and back did hurt him a lot because of the amount of time he kept his wings under his skin.

Dinner managed to pass without incident, though Phil was giving him concerned looks every now and then. Everyone was mostly preoccupied with teaching Tommy how to use a “spoon”, which was like a fork except you scooped things up instead of stabbing them. Apparently, it was necessary to use when eating “soup”. Tommy didn’t know why you didn’t just drink soup like you would drink water, and when he asked no one could really give him an answer.

After dinner, Butterfly offered to teach Tommy the different types of “dishes” while he washed them.

“We used bowls for dinner,” Butterfly said as he ran water over the half-circle thing they had used that night. “We typically use bowls for soups and sometimes pastas. They can hold liquid better because of their shape. While a plate,” he lifted one of the white disks they used for breakfast that morning. “They can’t hold liquids very well. We put pretty much everything else on a plate.”

“What’s that for, Butterfly?” Tommy asked, pointing at a transparent thing that had held water earlier.

Butterfly turned and looked at him, a very odd look on his face. “What?”

Tommy’s eyes widened. _Oh fuck. I called him Butterfly OUT LOUD?!?!??!?_

But to his surprise, instead of being offended, Butterfly started laughing. Loudly. He actually bent over, wings shaking, from laughing so hard. Phil actually looked up from where he was wiping down the table with water from the noise.

“I’m Wilbur,” Butterfly said when he stopped laughing long enough to speak. “Butterfly works too, but I prefer Wilbur or Wil,”

Tommy’s cheeks were burning as he looked away.

Phil looked like he was desperately trying not to laugh. “Is there anyone else you don’t know the name of?” He asked gently.

Tommy went silent for a few moments, wanting to run off so nobody could see him.

“Bat,” he finally admitted, putting his face in his hands.

“That’s Techno,” Phil said as But- Wilbur giggled quietly.

“Okay, you see I DIDN’T KNOW THAT,” Tommy glared at Wilbur, but there was no heat behind it. “STOP LAUGHING AT ME,”

“What’s going on?” Tubbo asked, having come down from upstairs.

“He’s been calling me “Butterfly” and Techno “Bat” this whole time ‘cause he didn’t know our names,” Wilbur was still giggling.

Tubbo bit his lip, obviously trying not to laugh, but his wings were flicking. “Why didn’t you just ask?”

“SHUT IT,” Tommy shot a glare at him too, but still with no anger in his gaze. His cheeks and the tops of his ears were really, really hot.

“That is adorable,” Bat- Techno, said from the stairs in his usual monotone voice.

Tommy, flustered, threw his hands up in the air in defeat. “I DIDN’T KNOW!”

“You could’ve asked,” Techno pointed out.

“Bullies, all of you,” Tommy mumbled, rubbing his face. “I’m going to go to sleep. Get away from you lot.”

“Under the bed?” Phil asked, a genuine question so they didn’t freak out when they couldn’t find him tomorrow.

“Under the bed,” Tommy nodded, heading up the stairs. He paused before going into Techno’s room, though.

There was something he wanted to try first.

He tried the rest of the doors, until he found a small room with cold, black, bumpy flooring similar to the floors in the kitchen. There was a few things in there that he didn’t know how to use, but he wasn’t there for them.

Tommy took several deep breaths as he took off his shirt as to not ruin it, staring at the glass panel that showed an image of himself. He could count his ribs, and his hip bones jutted out against his skin. And he could see his scars, not just the ones that gave way too his wings, but the ones that came from surviving for years in the wild.

His back and wings hurt so badly. He just wanted it to stop.

His wing muscles moved beneath his skin, and this time, when they started prodding to exit his back, he didn’t stop them.

Tommy’s teeth gritted together and a sharp breath came from between his teeth as he felt blood dribble down from the scars on his back. There was a sharp crack in his back as his wings tried to force themselves out. He bit into his fist to muffle his cries of pain.

It wasn’t supposed to hurt this much. It wasn’t supposed to bleed.

He sank to his knees as he felt his wings come out, sharp cracks coming from them as the slowly emerged, dripping with blood.

Tears were flowing down his face, and with a final awful snap, his wings were fully out. His teeth sank painfully into his knuckles, resulting in more pain, but it did little to stop the guttural scream that came from his vocal cords.

“Tommy?” Phil’s concerned voice came from the other side of the room’s closed door. “Tommy is that you in there? Are you okay?”

Tommy didn’t respond as he stared at his wings. They laid crookedly on either side of him, the tips brushing the floor and smearing blood everywhere. He tried to pull them up, to fold them, but the slightest movement sent white-hot pain up his wings.

It wasn’t supposed to hurt this much. His wings weren’t supposed to look like that. Why was there so much blood?

“Tommy I’m coming in, I’m sorry,” Phil sounded determined.

“No-” Tommy tried to protest weakly, but the door flung open anyway.

Phil stood there, his eyes wide with shock at the sight of him. He glanced around, seeing the blood all over the floor.

Tommy gave him a weak smile from behind the blood soaked feathers of one of his wings.

“Got my wings out.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m actually sorry for this one. My heart hurts from writing this.


	5. Chapter 5

Phil stared at Tommy for a solid minute before he finally reacted.

“Okay,” Phil seemed like he was panicking a little bit, but was trying to stay calm. “I want to get the others to help, are you okay with us touching you?”

Tommy nodded slightly, trembling.

“Tubbo, Wilbur, Techno!” Phil shouted, turning away slightly. “Grab towels and some water!”

“What’s happening?” Wilbur asked, peeking in from behind Phil. He audibly gasped and stumbled at the sight of Tommy.

“Go,” Phil said sternly. “Help Tubbo and Techno,”

Without complaint, Wilbur turned and raced down the stairs, his wings fluttering behind him.

Phil crouched down beside Tommy, who was still shaking.

“-why I didn’t take them out before,” Tommy whimpered, wincing as another jolt of pain went up his wings. “-isn’t supposed to hurt this bad,”

“No, it’s not,” Phil sounded worried. “It’s not normal for you to be bleeding, either. What happened?”

“He kept them in too long too often,” Techno’s deadpan voice came from the doorway, and Tommy looked up at him. “I told you, you’ll ruin your wings if you keep them in like that.”

“Didn’t have a place to let them out,” Tommy shrugged, and then hissed with pain from the movement. “I knew they were going to bleed when I let them out, that’s why I came here instead of staining the floor in the room. They didn’t hurt this much last time.”

“They’ve bled like this before?” Phil asked gently.

“Once,” Tommy nodded. “Last time. They always hurt before, but never this bad. I don’t think I can move them without them hurting,”

Phil looked worried, but he nodded, taking a round metal thing from Wilbur as he emerged in the doorway. It was full of water, and had fabrics in it.

“I told Tubbo to stay away,” Wilbur mentioned. “I don’t want him seeing him like this.”

“Stay with him, will you?” Phil asked. “You don’t have the strongest stomach either. Techno can help me here. There’s not enough room for four of us to fit in here anyway.”

Wilbur nodded and left. Techno crouched down beside Phil as Phil took one of the fabrics and squeezed most of the water out of it. Tommy had to look away as both Techno and Phil started to clean the blood out of his feathers.

Phil started humming a song that Tommy didn’t recognize, being very, very gentle as he tended to Tommy’s wings. Tommy closed his eyes, relaxing slightly as water instead of blood ran over his feathers.

They sat way for a while, Tommy holding still as Phil and Techno gently rinsed away the blood. He was jolted out of his peaceful state as his wing moved slightly, and he hissed softly from the pain.

“I’m sorry,” Phil’s apology was genuine. “We have to wash the underside too. We have to move them.”

Tommy gritted his teeth and nodded. He went rigid, his fingernails digging into his palms as Techno and Phil turned his wings over to wash the undersides. He made no complaint, only another soft hiss, as they did this.

It wasn’t long before they were done, and both helped stand him up.

“Let’s get your shirt on, okay?” Phil suggested, and painfully, they managed to get his wings through the two holes in the shirt as the shirt was put on.

“Now we need to make slings to hold your wings still,” Techno explained, grabbing a few more fabric things, these ones larger and drier than the ones that had been used to wash the blood out of his feathers, also with a different texture. “It should help them heal faster, and they won’t knock into anything, but it’ll hurt getting them into position.”

Tommy, taking a deep breath, reluctantly agreed. The instant that Techno picked up one of his wings, white hot pain shot through it. He nearly doubled over, but Phil steadied him, keeping him upright.

“I know, I know,” Phil whispered, running a hand through Tommy’s hair as Tommy dug his nails into Phil’s shoulders. “It’s okay. It’ll be over soon, okay?”

There was a loud crack from the wing Techno was moving as he set it into the “sling” he’d tied around Tommy. Techno and Phil both immediately froze, but the cracking noise had relieved some of the pain from Tommy’s wing.

“It’s okay, that felt better,” Tommy admitted. “Hurts less.”

Reluctantly, they continued. Though there had been another crack that seemed to have scared them, but Tommy reassured them that it was okay and that whatever had created the noise seemed to be alleviating some of the pain.

They moved on to the other wing, and more cracks came from it, but the cracking noises continued to decrease the pain in Tommy’s wing, so they resumed without incident.

“Do you think you could sleep on the bed instead of underneath?” Phil asked as they helped him to Techno’s room. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself by going underneath, and that way tomorrow I won’t freak out about where you’ve gone.”

“I’ll try,” Tommy mumbled, exhausted.

And try he did. Once he was on the bed, he was surprised at how soft everything was, and how nice it felt. Within minutes, he’d fallen asleep.

———

Once he was sure Tommy was asleep, Phil sighed and shut the door to Techno’s room. He turned around and was met by Wilbur, Tubbo, and Techno, all looking worriedly at him.

“What happened?” Tubbo asked, his eyes wide. “Why wouldn’t you guys let me see Tommy?”

“He took his wings out,” Phil sighed again. “But something was wrong. His wings were all bloody, and we couldn’t move them without him being in pain. We cleaned him up and put him to bed, that’s all.”

“Didn’t want you throwing up, or passing out,” Techno said gruffly. “You aren’t exactly the best with blood,”

“Is he okay?” Wilbur asked.

“As far as I can tell? He seems fine,” Phil went over to the bathroom and grabbed the pile of feathers he and Techno had collected from Tommy’s wings. “He was shedding a lot of feathers, though. He’ll probably have bald spots.”

“So he’s a feathered then?” Tubbo asked, glancing at the mound of feathers Phil was trying to hold onto. “I thought so. He didn’t seem like an insect to me.”

“Yeah,” Phil shrugged. “I can’t tell which species though. His wings were huge, so definitely a bird of prey, but I don’t know what kind.”

“I don’t think he’ll fly for a long time,” Techno hummed. “The missing feathers, and the state of his wings?”

“Let’s focus on helping his wings heal,” Tubbo interjected. “Before we worry about him flying.”

“Do you even think he can fly?” Wilbur asked. “He said the orphanage he was in burned down at night. Most feathered’s flight feathers don’t grow in until ten, right?”

“Typically,” Phil shrugged. “Depends on what species you are. Mine started growing in at ten, but they weren’t fully grown until I turned eleven.”

“Let’s stop talking about this,” Tubbo clapped his hands together. “Once his wings are better, we’ll teach him how to fly if we need to. I’m going to bed.”

With that, the conversation ended, and they parted ways.

———

Tommy woke up slowly for the first time in years, surrounded by soft things. Sunlight was filtering in through the window, but too weak to be late morning. His wings were heavy against his back, but weren’t hurting too badly.

Wait, his wings were out?

Tommy pushed himself up onto his elbows, wincing slightly as the scars on his back started aching. But for the first time in a long time, his wings weren’t bothering him.

The events of last night hit him like a stampede. Right. Forcing his wings out, Phil and Techno cleaning up the blood, his wings being wrapped up so they don’t bump against anything.

A bunch of fabrics surrounded him, they were the softest things he’d ever felt in his entire life. As much as he wanted to curl up with them and go back to sleep, he shouldn’t sleep in too late.

“Alright so...” Tommy mumbled aloud. “How... do I get off of this?”

Eventually, he did figure it out, and was trying to figure out whether he should leave the room or not when the door creaked open.

“Oh! You’re awake!” Tubbo’s face peaked in, his face brightening when he saw Tommy. “How are you feeling?”

“Better,” Tommy admitted. “My back doesn’t hurt anymore, and there’s no pain in my wings. My scars are sore, though.”

“Aw, I’m sorry,” Tubbo gave him a sympathetic look. “Do you want me to show you how to do your belt properly?”

Tommy laughed. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, comfort with a side of hurt.
> 
> Bon appetit!


	6. Chapter 6

Tommy had gotten used to life at the house after a few weeks.

  
Everyone was so nice, and they helped him out when he was confused. He knew what sheets were, what a dresser was, what different kinds of food were. It was great.

But Tommy would be lying if he didn’t say he wasn’t envious of the others.

His wings were still healing, the bald patches were growing new feathers in. He didn’t have to wear the slings anymore. He could move them a bit, but they still hurt, and they would get tired if he tried to use them too much.

He wanted to fly like others did.

Tommy had never known what it was like to fly. His flight feathers hadn’t grown in by the time the orphanage burned down. And wandering around in the woods for years? Well, no one had been around to teach him.

Whenever he asked, the others told him to wait. His wings would get strong eventually. He’d be able to fly one day, but not right now.

Tommy was tired of waiting.

“Do you ever get tired?” He asked Tubbo one day as he flew around, watering the gardens from above. “Your wings move really fast to keep you up.”

“No, I don’t get tired. Unless I’ve been flying for a really long time,” Tubbo hummed. “My wings are supposed to go very fast for minutes at a time. Hours though? Different story. I’m built for short distance flights with breaks in between, not flying for hours on end.”

“Can you take me flying?” Tommy asked.

“Phil has to teach you to fly, Tommy,” Tubbo smiled sympathetically at him. “Or Techno. I don’t know how flying with only two wings works.”

Tommy sighed, annoyed, but not at Tubbo. “I just want to be in the air.”

“Soon,” Tubbo promised. “It’s been a few weeks. It can’t be long now.”

———

“... What?” Tommy stared dumbly at Techno.

“It’s for you. Your own bed,” Techno looked slightly embarrassed, a very different tone to his usually deadpan look. “They wanted me to show you because it’d been my idea, but we all worked on it. To be honest, I can’t stand Wilbur snoring directly in my face anymore. So, your own bed, mostly so I don’t have to share one with Wilbur after this.”

“Thank you?” Tommy didn’t really know how to react. “Where are we going to put it?”

“We talked about it, and Tubbo doesn’t mind you staying in his room if that’s what you want,” Techno offered.

“How do we get it into the house, and through the door?” Tommy tilted his head, confused. “It’s too wide.”

Techno looked at the bed, then looked at the house.

“Fuck.”

———

“You give me anxiety, little bird,” Wilbur sighed. They were doing the dishes together again, and Wilbur had to keep snatching the sharp pointy things away from Tommy.

_Knives_ , Tommy corrected himself. “Anxiety?” He asked aloud, humming softly.

“Nervous, or scared,” Wilbur clarified. “You make me nervous.”

“I couldn’t tell you why,” Tommy shrugged, shifting his wings back and forth restlessly as he twirled a knife in between his fingers.

“Because you’re going to chop a finger off!” Wilbur shrieked, snatching the knife from him and giving him a glare. “And then Phil would cut MY fingers off, for letting you do it to yourself.”

“No he wouldn’t,” Tommy grinned.

“He wouldn’t,” Wilbur reluctantly agreed. “But at the end of lecture I’d get, I would have wished he did.”

Tommy’s grin grew wider as he managed to snatch the knife back and resumed twirling it. Wilbur shrieking, tried to lean across him and take it. Tommy, slightly concerned about stabbing Wil, stopped twirling it and holding it in a way that the stabby end was no longer pointed at anyone.

A few minutes later, when Wilbur finally managed to get the knife away from Tommy, they both started laughing.

“You are a terror,” Wilbur sighed.

“I’m a cute terror, and you can’t stay mad at me, bitchboy,” Tommy cackled as Wilbur gave him a half-hearted shove.

———

Tommy had been trying to sleep for close to an hour, when he heard Tubbo speak through the darkness of the room.

“Tommy? Are you awake?”

Tommy shifted, rolling onto his side until he could see the side of the room that Tubbo was on. “Yeah. What’s up?”

“I was just thinking,” there was a shifting of sheets on the other side of the room, Tommy assumed that Tubbo had rolled over too. “I used to be an orphanage too, back when I was younger. It burned down one day. A bunch of humans came during the night and started hurting everyone.”

Tommy went silent. That sounded awfully familiar.

“They caught me. Kept me for a while ‘cause they’d never seen someone with bee wings like mine,” Tubbo was rambling now. “They didn’t treat me right. Hardly fed me, hit me, stuff like that. Phil found me with them one day, I don’t know how. He rescued me. I think I spent a couple months with the humans. I still get scared of ‘em now, that’s why I don’t go into town with Phil.”

“That sounds like what happened to my orphanage,” Tommy recalled, whispering. “A bunch of humans came in, set the place on fire. Killed most of the kids and caretakers who were fleeing. I used to have this friend, I don’t remember his name but he was a few months older than me and he was an insect too. We were running away together and they caught us. Took him somewhere else, started trying to kill me. I only got away ‘cause they thought they had cut me deep enough that I wouldn’t survive out in the woods.” Tommy laughed bitterly. “I don’t die easily, though. I assumed my friend got killed. I had gone back to look for him, but the humans were gone, and I never found his body.”

Tubbo was silent for a while after that, and when minutes had passed by without them talking, Tommy assumed he’d fallen asleep.

But then he spoke.

“I had a friend in my orphanage too,” Tubbo whispered, quieter than he had before. “He gave me the name Tubbo, my real name was Toby or something. When they burned down the orphanage, we tried running away together, but they caught me and dragged me off.” Tommy sat up, eyes widening, and heard the rustling of sheets as Tubbo must have done so too. “He was feathered, like you. Never saw him after that. I thought they killed him.”

Tommy stared into the rough area of darkness where he assumed Tubbo must be for a moment, them both having fallen into silence.

“Miss Ellie always tried to get me to call you Toby,” Tommy choked out eventually, tears springing in his eyes.

“And she’d always call you Thomas,” Tubbo’s voice was faint. “I remember you hated her for that.”

A pause, this one only a few brief seconds. Then, the thunking of footsteps and Tubbo had ran into him, nearly knocking him into the wall as he wrapped him in a fierce hug.

Tommy felt a tear go down his cheek as he hugged him back just as hard.

“I missed you,” Tubbo sobbed quietly. “I cried for you more than I cried for anyone else.”

“I missed you too Big Man,” Tommy whispered back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mostly a filler chapter, so I added in some family dynamics. I feed all you fuckers.


	7. Chapter 7

The next day was mostly uneventful. Tommy helped Tubbo and Techno out at the farm while Wilbur and Phil went into town to sell some stuff, and to go buy things for around the house. Mainly, they were trying to buy clothes that would fit Tommy, as while he’d gained some weight and was no longer skin and bones, Techno’s pants were still wayyyy too big on him.

They’d joked around as they made dinner. They were trying to teach Tommy how to cook while desperately keeping him away from the knives. Well, to rephrase: Techno found Tommy’s obsession with fiddling with sharp objects cute, while Tubbo desperately tried to make sure he didn’t hurt himself or anyone else while he did so.

Techno had also definitely noticed how easygoing Tubbo and Tommy were being around each other. Sure, they were friendly before, but their conversation the previous night had made them closer and more at ease with each other.

Tubbo was setting the table as Techno and Tommy started dishing out the food when Wilbur and Phil came in, looking somber.

The mood immediately changed. Even Tommy, who was trying to learn how to pick up social cues (which he was awful at), stopped bantering when he saw Wilbur and Phil’s expressions.

“What’s wrong?” Techno asked, his light tone from just a few minutes earlier having vanished.

“There’s rumors going around town about a nest nearby,” Phil sighed, taking off his coat and letting his wings out. “They’re organizing a party to destroy it tonight.”

“A nest?” Tommy asked.

“It’s a human slang term,” Tubbo whispered to him. “Used to describe multiple wingfolk in one location.”

“Do you think they’re talking about us?” Tommy’s eyes widened.

“We’re not sure,” Phil seemed worried. “But put together a travel pack just in case they are. From what we heard, they’re planning on driving the nest out. I don’t want us to be caught unprepared, just in case.”

Dinner was somber that night, everyone finishing quickly and leaving in a haste to go pack a “travel pack”. Tommy would have to ask Tubbo what that meant.

By the time the sun was gone, everyone had finished packing any essentials. Tommy’s pack consisted of mostly clothes, because if they needed to get away quickly, he would have to be carried since he couldn’t fly by himself.

“Alright, what’s the plan?” Phil asked as they all fidgeted in the kitchen, everyone a bundle of nerves.

“If they’re blocking the door, me and Tommy go upstairs and break a window while you three keep them distracted,” Tubbo recited from memory, but his voice was shaky. “We go into the woods and wait for you outside town.”

“Wilbur, Phil, and I hold them off until we hear Tommy and Tubbo break the window,” Techno confirmed. “Then, if we can, we fly off and meet up with them outside town.”

“And if we don’t meet up?” Phil pressed.

“Tubbo and I wait for two days, if you don’t show up, we don’t come looking for you,” Tommy mumbled. He didn’t like that part of the plan.

“You two should go to bed,” Wilbur said gently. “Keep your bags with you. I’m sure you’ll wake up if anything happens.”

Tommy didn’t like the sound of that, and the others were giving him weird looks. He wasn’t sure why. Fingers gently wrapped around his wrist as Tubbo tugged him up the stairs. Once they were in their room, Tommy headed straight for the bed, but Tubbo stopped him.

“Tommy, it’s going to be okay,” Tubbo whispered in a comforting voice. “Calm down, it’s okay.”

“What are you talking about?” Tommy asked. “I’m fine,”

“No, you’re not.”

Tommy deflated slightly. “How can you tell?”

“The way your wings are moving,” Tubbo tilted his head with a soft smile.

Tommy glanced back at his wings, which he hadn’t noticed were moving at all. The feathers were twitching, and his wings were half-opening, and then closing, over and over again.

“It’s something Phil does when he’s nervous, too,” Tubbo explained. “It must be a feathered thing.”

“I didn’t know they were moving,” Tommy admitted as he forced his wings to still. “They weren’t hurting at all. Normally they ache a little bit when I move them, but there wasn’t any pain.”

“That’s probably a good thing,” Tubbo pointed out. “It means they’ve been healing, right? If they don’t hurt as much anymore?”

“I guess you’re right,” Tommy reluctantly agreed. “I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight.”

“I don’t either, but we should try.”

They both laid down on their beds, but Tommy knew sleep wasn’t going to come. His heart was beating fast as his mind ran through what might happen over the next few hours. He was sure that’d he wouldn’t be sleeping that night.

———

Tommy awoke to the smell of smoke and the sound of yelling.

His body jolted awake, as it always used to do when he was living in the woods. It was the first time since his first day at Phil’s house that he’d woken up like that, and he knew immediately something was wrong.

Tommy threw himself off the bed, rushing over to Tubbo’s bed and pulling his still sleeping body off of it. Tubbo yelped as he hit the ground, but Tommy slammed his hand over Tubbo’s mouth to silence him.

They crouched there for a few seconds, Tommy closing his eyes and listening. The crackling sounds of fire weren’t that close to them, but it was definitely coming from the house. He could here Techno, Wilbur, and Phil yelling, but couldn’t make out what they were saying.

He could hear the others though.

“GET OUT OF HERE YOU WINGFOLK!”

“STAY AWAY FROM OUR TOWN!”

“WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO BE HERE?! THIS IS OUR PLACE!”

“BURN IT DOWN WITH THOSE DEMONS INSIDE!”

Tommy released Tubbo and went over the window, peeking up so only his eyes could be seen through the glass.

There were dozens of people, some with torches and some with nothing. Screaming about demons and the poisoning of the town.

“We have to go,” Tommy told Tubbo. “Now. Tuck your wings in. If we go at the right moment, they won’t think anything of two human boys helping burn down a nest.”

Tubbo nodded.

Tommy took a deep breath and straightened up, out of sight of the window. He went to pull his wings under his skin and-

And was met by a fierce, stabbing pain, starting from the scars on his back and resonating into his wings. He stumbled slightly, catching himself. He shook his head and grimaced, trying again.

The pain came back, sharper this time. It got worse the longer he tried to pull them in, and eventually he exhaled sharply, pitching forward. Tubbo caught him.

“What’s wrong?” Tubbo asked.

“I can’t,” Tommy shook his head in. “I can’t put my wings back in anymore. I tried. It’s not working.”

“Shit,” Tubbo cursed, slightly surprising Tommy. “Um... Phil’s coat! It should be long enough to cover your wings if you keep them folded. I’ll go grab it,”

“No, we’ll go grab it,” Tommy corrected. “I’m not letting you out of my sight.”

“Shouldn’t I be the one protecting you?” Tubbo sniped back, but there wasn’t any heat behind his words. “Your the one who can’t put your wings away. Plus, I’m older.”

“By four months!” Tommy protested.

“And four months is enough,” Tubbo retorted. “Are you coming or not?”

They both crept downstairs. The stairs were angled in a way that nobody downstairs could really see them until they were at the bottom. Techno was being dragged out of the house, fighting and yelling the whole way, by five men. Both Phil and Wilbur were nowhere to be seen.

“Techno!” Tubbo screamed, and Tommy slammed a hand over his mouth again. One of the men spotted them.

“There’s two more of ‘em in here!” The man shouted to someone outside.

Techno froze at the sight of Tommy and Tubbo. “Run!” The bat yelled. “Get out of here!”

As Techno was dragged outside, two more men stepped into the house. It was starting to reek of smoke even stronger now, and Tubbo was coughing.

Tommy, thinking quickly, grabbed a bloodstained sword from the ground and swung it at one of the men. It caught the man across the chest, and the man spat up blood as he fell to the ground, supported by his companion.

“LEAVE US ALONE!!” Tommy screamed, swiping again. “LET THEM GO YOU BASTARDS!!”

His second swipe missed, and he felt an arm tugging him back.

“Tommy let’s go!” Tubbo tried pulling him away. “We have to go!”

Tommy turned, and saw tears running town Tubbo’s face. He was clutching Phil’s coat and a bloodstained gray hat that Tommy had seen Wilbur wear once.

Then, someone grabbed Tubbo. Pulling him away from Tommy as Tubbo thrashed and screamed. A big human, taller than Tommy or even Wilbur, had grabbed Tubbo and was hauling him outside.

“TUBBO!!” Tommy screamed as Tubbo was being pulled away. Tubbo dropped the coat and the hat, scrabbling at the doorframe to stop himself from being carried off. But another human slammed a large, carved wooden thing against one of Tubbo’s arms, and he screamed in pain, letting go. “TUBBO!!!”

A pair of hands was grabbing at him now, but he was furious, vibrating with a rage he’d never felt before and didn’t have the words to describe. He spun the sword and thrust it forward, (he was pretty sure it was the same one he’d seen in Techno’s room while he stayed there) and he heard it slide into something squishy with a weird squelching noise.

There was a cough, and he felt something warm and wet spray into his face as the man in front of him crumpled to the ground. The sword slid out of wherever it had gone with another wet sound. But he wasn’t paying attention to where it went. He grabbed the coat and the hat and ran out the front door, brandishing his sword.

“GIVE THEM BACK MOTHERFUCKERS!!!” Tommy screamed.

Then he realized just how many people there were.

He’d counted more than a dozen when he’d been looking out the window earlier. Now, he saw there were at least four dozen people there. He faltered slightly at the sight of so many people. He expected, four, maybe five other people he had to fight. Not... more than twelve. He still couldn’t think of a number higher than twelve, even though Phil had sat him down to help him learn more numbers just last week.

“TOMMY RUN!” There was a yell. It was Wilbur, tied up and being dragged along. Phil, Techno, and Tubbo were all staring at him with dumbfounded expressions, also tied up and being pulled away. “RUN TOMMY, RUN! GO!”

Tommy wanted to chase after them, to help them. But he knew he’d end up tied up too if he tried. He would have to help them later. He couldn’t do anything now.

Tears started rolling down his cheeks as he turned and ran around the house. The house that he could now see was on fire. The crops had been trampled, the goats and other animals restless in their pens.

Tears kept falling as he ran, and ran, and ran. Ran even as his lungs burned and his legs felt like they’d collapse beneath him. He was running through the forest now, barefoot. His instincts must have kicked in while he’d been running, because he soon found himself in a familiar spot.

The small stream was directly in front of him. Across from it, he recognized the tree he had slept in the day Phil had found him. Tommy slowed, walking unsteadily through the stream until he was on the other side. Then, he forced himself up the tree, the sword handle in his mouth and the coat and hat draped over one shoulder.

He stopped in the familiar crook in the branches, letting himself breathe as he could hear people crashing about in the forest.

“The water would weigh down his wings!” Called a voice from across the stream. “He wouldn’t have crossed, he must’ve gone this way!”

_Good, they won’t come this way,_ Tommy thought tiredly. Now that the adrenaline was gone, his head cleared and his heart wasn’t beating as fast.

_I left them,_ he felt tears start to fall from his eyes again. _I left them. I left them behind. How could I do that?_

He sat in his tree, sobbing quietly, for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y’all. As promised, angst once more. Also- I have family over for the next week so there’s a pretty good chance this chapter will be the last once for a little bit, unless I write it during school.


	8. Chapter 8

When Tommy jolted awake, he found himself wrapping an arm around a tree branch instinctively. For a minute, he was confused. What was he doing in a tree? He had a bed now, in the room he shared with Tubbo.

Then he remembered.

His heart ached so bad he just wanted to sob for the rest of the day, but a fierce determination swept over him.

The others couldn’t afford his moping.

He needed to save them.

He knew what he had to do.

Tommy slid down the tree trunk until his feet brushed the grass. He was barefoot. It was almost like the past few weeks never happened, like it was some kind of fever dream, and he was still living in the woods.

But he knew better.

He went to work immediately, grabbing the coat, the beanie, and the sword and carrying them to the stream.

_The one problem about living with Phil,_ Tommy grumbled mentally as he sat down at the bank. _Is now everything’s too clean. Never thought I’d say that._

His previously white and red shirt was smeared with blood and ash from last night, so it looked dirty enough to be considered a street boy’s clothes, but he’d have to make it more convincing. Grabbing a fistful of dirt, he winced at the fact he was about to purposely dirty his only set of clothes, but he had to do it anyway.

Once that looked stained enough, he grabbed the bottoms of his pants legs and tore the bottoms two inches off, making them look weathered and old. He also streaked the pants with dirt and mud, but since they were black, you couldn’t see it as well.

He stuck his hands in dirt and then ran them through his hair, pushing it every which way and effectively turning it brown instead of blonde. Tommy quickly checked to see where the sun was in the sky. It was morning. He’d head towards town at about noon.

He shivered slightly as a cold wind went through the trees. Man, he wished he had shoes. His feet felt like they were freezing.

Tommy pushed the thought away, grabbing Phil’s coat and inspecting it.

Not much I can do with this without giving away my wings, he mused. In the end, all he did was rip the sleeves and the collar and smeared mud and dirt over it. He then covered his face and hands in dirt, his feet were already dirty so he didn’t have to worry about that.

He grabbed Wilbur’s hat and turned it over, thinking, before grabbing the sword and ripping a couple of small holes in the bloodstained fabric and sprinkling dirt on it.

_I’m going to need a reason to be in town,_ he thought. He glanced at his wings as an idea came to him, and he winced as he pulled a few feathers out from various spots on his wings.

Tommy stood up, folding his wings tightly against his back as he pulled the coat on. He slung the beanie over his head the way he’d seen Wilbur wear it, and picked up the sword, wondering where he would put it.

Eventually, he decided on just sticking it through one of the loops on his pants that his belt went through and covered it with the coat.

True to what Tubbo said, the coat was long enough that it fell to his ankles, and completely concealed his wings and the sword.

Tommy stood there for a moment, before adjusting his posture. He could remember how the other kids who lived on the streets talked, he’d imitated them before. Now, he just hoped he could be convincing enough.

_No more games,_ he thought, eyes narrowing as he started towards town. _Those fuckers are going to pay for ever thinking about laying a hand on my family._

———

Tommy was walking slowly through the town. Everyone seemed to be on edge, but no one paid attention to another dirty homeless boy walking through the streets. There were other children, dressed in ill-fitting dirty clothes.

No one paid attention to them. No one would pay attention to him.

He stopped in the shadows in between buildings as he heard talking, pressing his back flush against the wall of a house and slowing his breathing as he listened.

“-can’t believe we let one get away,” one man grumbled. “A feathered too, Oscar said. Coulda made a lot of money yankin’ out its feathers.”

“You still got the rest of ‘em,” another man said. “That insect one that has its arm broken? Never seen one like that before. We’ll make a lot of money sellin’ that one, I’m bettin’ ya.”

Tommy bristled slightly. Those fuckers broke Tubbo’s arm, they were going to PAY.

“We got a couple buyers lined up to come see ‘em already,” the first man replied. “If we get a lead on that other feathered, you bet I’m takin’ it.”

Tommy thought for a moment, reaching into the coat pocket and pulling out one of the feathers he’d yanked out of his wings earlier.

“Ya missed one?” Tommy let his voice slip into a tone that was often used by children on the streets. A high pitched, scratchy thing that radiated dishonesty. “I saw somethin’ in the woods earlier boys, left this behind.” He stepped out of the shadows, and presented the feather, keeping his grip on it strong in case they try to take it from him.

“Did ya see where it went?” One of the men asked, a grin stretching over his face. He was shorter than the one next to him.

“Probably could find out for ya,” Tommy gave him a smirk that was all teeth. “For a price, y’know how it is. I’m pretty good about findin’ that sort of thing.”

“How do we know this ain’t a trick?” The other man asked suspiciously narrowing his eyes.

“I’m just lookin’ for some money for food, fellas,” Tommy reassured. “Maybe a share of the coin you get for it when I find it. That’s all.”

“You sound pretty sure you’ll find it,” the tall man said, sounding suspicious.

“I’m good at this sort of thing,” Tommy shrugged, sending him another smirk. “Let me talk to the other ones you got, see if I can get one of ‘em to answer a couple questions. I’ll be able to find this feathered for ya, before it runs too far off.”

The two men glanced at each other, and nodded.

“Follow us, kid,” the taller man said gruffly as they turned. “You prolly gotta better chance of findin’ this thing then the other ones do, the idiots.”

_If anything, I should be glad you both are idiots,_ Tommy thought, his untrustworthy smirk becoming a bit more real as he was led to a large wooden building by the two fools in front of him.

He stuffed his hands into his pockets and he followed them inside, feeling the handle of the sword beneath the fabric of his coat.

Inside were multiple pens, making Tommy think that this used to be some sort of barn. Four of them were occupied, their occupants wearing metal bands around their wrists and necks that were bolted into the floor by a chain. From right to left, it was Wilbur, Phil, Tubbo, and then Techno.

Techno seemed to be the only one trying to get out of his chains, and was also the only one who had two guards outside of his pen. The others were unguarded.

Tommy’s eyes flickered over each of them, his eyes lingering on Tubbo’s broken arm, Phil’s black eye and busted lip, the way Wilbur was holding one of his wings awkwardly, and the bloody stains all over Techno.

A fiery rage was building up in his chest, but he clenched his fists and forced it down. He couldn’t afford to snap at that moment.

“When ya said you raided a nest, I thought there woulda been more of ‘em,” Tommy commented, trying to keep his tone in the same scratchy thing that the other homeless kids used.

“There was only five of ‘em,” the shorter man said bluntly. “The last one got away, that’s what your here for.”

Techno and Tubbo wasn’t even looking at him, but Phil and Wilbur had matching stone-cold glares. At first, it made his heart throb, but then he realized.

_They don’t recognize me either,_ Tommy thought. _That’ll work in my favor in the long run. As much as it hurts._

“Why’s that one guarded?” Tommy nodded at Techno, who finally looked at him with a gaze full of rage. His heart ached again, but he was determined to stay in character.

“It killed four of our men before we could grab it,” the taller man spat. “Killed another one while we tried chaining it up. Finally cut it enough that it can’t hurt anyone, but the guards are just in case.”

“They’re damaged,” Tommy hummed. “Ya won’t get as much for ‘em now.”

“It was needed to get ‘em out of that nest,” the short man argued. “You shoulda seen it. The one we’re lookin’ for now killed one of ours, another one’s probably going to die soon because of it too. Damaging ‘em was what we had to do to get ‘em out while still havin’ our lives.”

Tommy blanked on that one. _I killed someone? Maybe even two? What?_

“Good for him,” Techno spat. “I wish he’d killed more of you fuckers,”

“Shut up!” One of the guards yelled, swiping his sword at Techno, who scooted away just in time to avoid getting hit.

“Lemme talk to ‘em,” Tommy offered once he pulled himself back together. “See if I can get anythin’.”

The taller man snorted. “Be my guest. Best of luck to ya.”

Tommy scanned each of them, deciding, before walking over and stopping at Phil’s pen.

“You’re a feathered too,” Tommy said to him, keeping the scratchy voice up since he was still within earshot of the two men and the guards. “Recognize this?”

He pulled the feather out of his pocket and held it up. Phil’s eyes immediately narrowed, his gaze full of anger.

“So ya do,” Tommy gave him a half-hearted smirk. “I thought so. Mind tellin’ me where to find the one this belongs to?”

Phil looked straight at him and leaned forward slightly. “Piss off,” he spat.

“I gladly will, soon,” Tommy replied cheerfully, before leaning over the fence and raising an eyebrow at Phil. “Maybe tell Butterfly over there to act more wounded with his torn wing, he’ll get less attention if he does. Less attention means less buyers.” He said quietly, slipping back into his normal voice for the few seconds it took to say those words and letting the smile fall from his face.

Phil’s murderous look softened, his eyes widening in confusion.

“Look angry,” Tommy corrected in a whisper. “So they don’t get suspicious.”

Phil faltered for a moment, before he complied, his face turning furious once more, but there was no heat behind his eyes. Only curiosity.

“This one won’t say anythin’,” Tommy returned to the scratchy thing he’d been using earlier. “Shoulda expected that, I suppose.” He stood up again and walked back to the two men who had brought him there.

“I doubt you’ll get anythin’ from any of the other ones either,” the shorter man commented. “They haven’t said a word except demanding to be let go. I doubt they’ll tell ya where to find their buddy.”

“You’re right,” Tommy sighed. “I’ll go out and look for the feathered. If I get a clue or I find it, I’ll come back.”

“Sounds fine,” the shorter man shrugged. “I’m Frank, this is Ben. You ask anyone for us and they’ll tell ya where to find us.”

Tommy grinned as he left the barn, and took the quickest route out of town. _Idiots._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I live for BAMF Tommy


	9. Chapter 9

Phil was confused at the brown haired, thin boy covered in dirt and blood who’d shown him one of Tommy’s feathers. He had an accent that was often used by the street boys nearby, and made him think that he was one of the many homeless kids in this large farming town.

But he had leaned over, and he’d whispered to Phil in a regular voice advice on how to be more discreet and how to not be bought. He sounded a lot like Tommy, but he didn’t look anything like him.

When the boy had turned around, Phil had studied the way the boy had held himself. He was wingfolk, like them. Trying to help them out under the guise of some homeless boy and hopefully not actually hunting down Tommy.

Now, a week later, Phil hadn’t seen the boy since. The humans had eventually stopped guarding them, and had let them all in the same pen. The chains were still there though, still bolted into the ground.

Phil was worried.

Techno had developed a fever overnight and had been sleeping a lot. Phil was trying his best to keep him cool. But it was most likely from the infection of the cut on his side, but Phil didn’t have anything to help with that.

Tubbo’s arm was still broken, but they’d managed to use clothes to make a sling for him, but they couldn’t make a splint or anything to make sure it healed properly.

Wilbur was okay, but with his wing torn, he couldn’t fly. Phil was sore, but he’d manage.

They couldn’t get out, they didn’t have a plan.

Phil didn’t know what they could do.

———

Tommy was worried. And tired.

The little weight he’d gained while living with Phil was gone. The sword on his hip was getting heavier as the days went by. After weeks of eating three times a day, catching the occasional squirrel or fish and rifling through people’s trash was taking a toll on him.

When he’d gone back to the humans several times throughout the past week to report he’d found nothing, they were getting more and more frustrated with him. Tommy couldn’t think of an excuse to go see the others again, and he was worried that he wouldn’t be able to before they started being bought.

Thankfully though, Frank and Ben, being idiots, had told him how they couldn’t get any buyers. Mostly since they were all injured in some way. Especially how the bat (Techno) had been sick and the others had been demanding fever medicine.

“Let it die, I say,” Ben said gruffly. “Killed five of our men. Doubt it’ll be useful anyhow. No one will buy somethin’ dangerous,”

Tommy, who trying extremely hard not to thrust his sword into Ben’s neck, cheerfully agreed while fantasizing of all the ways to murder the both of them.

The minute he had the opportunity, he broke into the town library to look for a book on medicinal herbs. He remembered that there was a plant that helped with fevers, but he hadn’t remembered it was called or what it looked like.

Tommy wasn’t exactly the best reader, but he still knew how. It was frustratingly slow, though, as he tried to find the plant. He eventually figure out what it was called, and went out searching.

Finally, after wasting almost a full day looking for it, he found a clump of feverfew and pulled it up, stuffing it in the pocket of his coat. Then, thinking quickly, he ripped out a few more feathers, then made a small cut his arm with the sword and dripped blood over the feathers.

That’s how he marched into town that night, with bloody feathers in one pocket and a clump of feverfew in the other. It was cold. Extremely so. His feet were freezing. The first snow of the year couldn’t be too far off.

“Ah, boy!” Frank called, grinning as he spotted him. “Good to see you! When will ya ever tell me your name?”

Tommy gave him a withering stare, then raised his eyebrow.

“Got some info for ya,” Tommy didn’t answer the question. “Didn’t find the bastard, but it’s wounded. Blood and feathers everywhere, I tell ya. I know it’s not dead, ‘cause there were tracks, but I lost it when it crossed a stream. It must not be able to fly, otherwise it woulda taken off by now.”

“Well, better than nothin’!” Frank grinned.

“What’s got ya in such a good mood?” Tommy asked, suspicion rising.

“Found a buyer that wants to come take a look at one of ‘em! The insect boy with the broken arm, he said. Be here any moment, I bet! Wanna come with me to meet him?”

Tommy tried not to shiver, somehow maintaining his composure. “Don’t see why not. I wanna be talkin’ to the four of ‘em anyhow. Gettin’ fed up with this goose chase. If they won’t talk, I’ll make ‘em talk.”

“Sounds like a plan, boy!” Frank boomed. “Come, come!”

Tommy followed, his deadpan expression rivaling only Techno’s usual one. As he entered the small barn that held the four wingfolk, he was mildly surprised to see them all in one pen. And that they were now unguarded.

Techno was asleep, his head in Phil’s lap. He didn’t look very good. He was pale, and sweating despite the cold temperature.

Wilbur was giving him a murderous look, and Tubbo seemed more interested in Techno than in him. But Phil was staring at him curiously.

“I’ll leave ya be,” Frank slapped him on the shoulder and laughed. “Ya do what ya need to do. I’ll yell when the buyer arrives so you can finish up. Keep it all... not visible.”

Tommy nodded, brushing Frank’s hand off his shoulder and sending him a smirk. “I know what to do, don’t ya worry,”

Frank laughed again, and Tommy was desperately trying not to strangle him as the human left.

As soon as the door was closed and Tommy was sure that Frank was gone, he sighed and turned back to the four in the pen.

Tommy reached into his pocket and pulled out the clump of feverfew, holding it out close enough so any of them could grab it.

“This should help with the fever,” Tommy told them, his voice slipping back to normal. “I-I’m not sure how you give it to him, the book didn’t say. But I spent all damn day looking for this, so just take it.”

“Why should we trust you?” Wilbur glared at him.

“You’re wingfolk, right?” Phil asked, tilting his head. “Why are you helping the humans find Tommy? Why are you helping us?”

“It’d be pretty stupid of me to try and help those two idiots find him,” he scoffed, leaning over to cough into his elbow. “All things considered, at least. Take the damn plant.”

“You haven’t answered the question,” Wilbur retorted. “Why. Should. We. Trust. You?”

Tommy rolled his eyes. “And I thought the humans were the only morons around here,” he rasped. He threw the clump of feverfew at them, Tubbo catching it with his good hand. Tommy straightened up from his previously slouching posture, and started to take off the coat.

“Isn’t that...” Tubbo started to ask, his eyes on the sword on his hip. But he trailed off as Tommy threw the coat on the ground and stretched out his wings enough so that they were visible to them. “Tommy?!”

“Keep your damn voice down,” Tommy snapped, folding his wings in again and hurriedly putting on the coat.

“How-” Phil looked confused. “How didn’t I notice?”

“You’re used to seeing me clean,” Tommy shrugged. “It’s a wonderful thing, what a little dirt and blood can do. Plus, you didn’t notice because I didn’t want you to notice. You wouldn’t have realized it was me if I hadn’t done that. I did it for a reason, y’know.”

“I told you to run!” Wilbur hissed quietly.

“I did!” Tommy snapped back. “But I wasn’t going to leave you here to be bought.”

There was a few knocks on the barn door.

“Finish up in there boy!” Frank boomed from the other side.

“Yessir!” Tommy’s voice immediately went into the same scratchy thing he’d been using earlier. Then, hurriedly, he rolled up one of the coat sleeves, grabbed the sword, and sliced a neat cut across the back of his forearm.

“Tommy-” Phil looked at him with wide eyes.

“Shut up,” Tommy hissed, his voice returning to normal, but much quieter than before. “Wilbur, come here. I have to make it look like I hurt you.”

“Tommy I-” Wilbur looked unsure.

“Just do it!” Tommy whispered fiercely.

Reluctantly, Wilbur did, stepping forward and wincing as Tommy smeared his blood on Wilbur’s shirt.

“Tubbo,” Tommy said urgently, rolling his coat sleeve back down. “Make it look like your fussing over Wilbur. All three of you need to look really angry, or this won’t work. Shoot a glare at me every now and then if you have to.”

Tubbo nodded, nudging Wilbur until he leaned up against the wall and Tubbo crouched in front of him, as if he was trying to help him with an injury.

“We’re coming in, boy!” That was Ben’s voice.

“Sounds alright to me, sir,” Tommy called back, switching once again to the accent he used around them.

The barn door pushed open, Frank and Ben walking in alongside a man that Tommy didn’t recognize. The man was rather short, wearing a long coat and shoes that seemed to not have a speck of dirt or mud on them. His clothes seemed impossibly clean, his white shirt not dull in the slightest.

“Ah, what has happened?” Asked the man, his voice accented, but not in the same way that the regular townspeople’s were. “They all seem injured. I knew the one I want was, but I didn’t know all of them would be.”

“Had to get ‘em out of their nest, Mr. Beck,” Frank was grinning. “Damages came with ‘em.”

“Of course,” Mr. Beck hummed with displeasure. “Who are you?” He turned, staring at Tommy.

“Just a poor boy earnin’ some coin by helpin’ out Frank and Ben, sir,” Tommy shrugged.

“Hmm...” Mr. Beck seemed in thought. “You deal with the creatures?”

“No sir,” Tommy shook his head. “Second time seein’ ‘em in the week they been here. Heard someone was comin’ to buy one, wanted to watch.”

“I see. Very well. Fetch the one with the broken arm and bring it here, boy,” Mr. Beck looked away from him and towards the others.

Tommy hesitated, but stepped over the fence and into the pen. Tubbo looked frightened, and Tommy couldn’t tell if it was real or if it was an act. With his back to the three humans, he mouthed “I’m sorry” towards the four. Phil stared at him for a moment, before moving his head slightly downwards.. Tommy hoped this meant “do what you have to do” because at this point, he didn’t have a choice.

Tommy walked forward and grabbed Tubbo by his good arm.

“Hey! Leave him alone!” Wilbur shouted, but there was no anger in his eyes.

“Will, it’ll be okay!” Tubbo reassured, and Tommy gave them both an apologetic look before dragging Tubbo over to the fence as close as his chains would allow.

“Hmm...” Mr. Beck looked Tubbo up and down. “You’re small. And the arm will be useful, less chance of you fighting back. All good things. I’ve never seen a wingfolk creature like you before.”

Tubbo shivered, and Tommy was trying so very hard to not lunge for the small human and snap his neck.

“How much do you want for it?” Mr. Beck asked, not taking his eyes off Tubbo.

“200 coin,” Frank grinned.

“Do you have any other buyers?” He asked.

“No, you’d be it, Mr. Beck,” Ben answered.

“Then I’ll take it,” Mr. Beck nodded, turning away. “The coin will be in my carriage, I will go retrieve it. In the meantime, get it out of its chains and make sure it won’t fight back.”

“No!” Phil cried, and Tubbo had frozen as Mr. Beck left the barn.

Frank turned to Tommy, his smile getting even wider. “Unlock it and get it over the fence, boy.” The small man tossed a small ring of keys in Tommy’s direction, and somehow he caught it.

Tommy was frozen, and he saw Ben draw his sword and point it at Phil and Wilbur behind him.

“Don’t be difficult,” Ben said gruffly.

Tommy turned, seeing that Phil and Wilbur had both gotten up and were glaring murderously at Ben and Frank.

“What are you waiting for boy?” Frank asked, his eyebrow raised. “Unlock its chains already!”

Tommy felt icy rage start to form in his chest, and he just stared at Frank, his expression blank.

Then, without breaking eye contact with Frank, he tossed the keys to Wilbur and drew out his sword, reaching forward and slicing a big red line across Frank’s throat.

The small human reached up and touched the wound in his neck, eyes wide as blood gushed from the injury. Then, he fell to the ground, not even throwing out his hands to catch himself.

Tommy glanced at Frank’s body with no emotion on his face, before looking up and meeting Ben’s eyes. Dark brown eyes that held fury and surprise and fear met bright blue ones that held no emotion at all, except rage.

“You should’ve never touched my family.”


	10. Chapter 10

Ben was staring right at him, eyes wide. “You- you-”

Tommy twirled the sword in his hand, trying to make it seem effortless when it was, in fact, very heavy. He grinned at Ben, a venomous thing that he’d never really used before. The human took a step back, but it wasn’t enough.

Tommy leaped over the fence, kicking Ben in the chest. The man stumbled back, coughing, and didn’t have time to react before Tommy had his sword through the human’s chest.

Panting, Tommy ripped the sword free of Ben’s body and glanced back at the others.

They were staring at him, eyes wide. Even Techno had woken up at some point, dazed and looking at him, confused.

“What are you waiting for? Get your chains off before more come!” Tommy snapped, and Wilbur went to work trying to unlock his chains.

“Is that my sword?” Techno asked, his speech slightly slurred as he shakily tried to stand up. Phil rushed over and supported him as he almost fell over.

Tommy glanced down at the sword in his hand, before looking back up and shrugged. “Took it from the house before I ran. It might be.”

“It is,” Tubbo nodded as Wilbur, having finished with his own restraints, started working on his.

“What’s the plan?” Phil asked.

“We run,” Tommy shrugged. “Wilbur can’t fly. I can’t fly. I don’t trust Techno to fly right now. Who’s carrying Techno out of here?”

“No one’s carrying me,” Techno mumbled, though he clearly wouldn’t be able to stand if Phil wasn’t supporting him.

“I’ll do it,” Wilbur offered as he finished with Tubbo and went over to help with Phil and Techno’s chains.

There was a gasp and something made several clinking sounds as it hit the floor. Tommy turned, his grip on the sword tightening as Mr. Beck stared, mouth agape, at Ben and Frank’s bodies. He’d dropped his bag of coins, and the small man looked terrified.

“They’re dead! They’re dead!” Mr. Beck screamed, running out of the barn. “That boy killed them! He killed them! Help!”

“Coward,” Tommy hissed.

“Tommy!” Phil called. “Pass me a sword!”

Tommy grabbed Ben’s sword and kicked it across the floor as a bunch of humans burst into the barn, armed and confused.

Phil picked up the sword and jumped the fence, free of his restraints as Wilbur frantically tried to unlock Techno’s.

Tommy ducked underneath a human’s swing, thrusting his sword forward and hearing it go into something squishy and wet. He yanked it out and kicked the person he’d just stabbed square in the knee. The man crumpled, and for good measure, Tommy readjusted his grip before stabbing the man through the neck.

A flash of pain went across his cheek, narrowly missing his eye. Another sword caught him across the collarbone. He hit the ground, kicking someone’s legs out from underneath them and stabbing them in the chest once they fell. Tommy rolled, jumping to his feet and narrowly dodging a sword through the stomach.

Tommy reared back and slammed his elbow into a human’s nose, grinning when he heard a series of cracks and his victim scream as blood gushed out. Someone stomped violently on his foot, causing Tommy to curse and stumble backwards. They definitely broke one of his toes, he really needed shoes.

“Tommy!” Tubbo yelled, causing Tommy to whip his head in his direction. He and Wilbur, who was holding Techno, were against the wall in the pen, unable to get out due to the fighting.

While he was distracted, Tommy felt a sharp burn on his bicep. Someone had got him. Gritting his teeth from the pain of his injuries, Tommy swiped his sword, catching one human across the chest and another in the leg. He threw his shoulder into one of the men, and when the man fell over, he thrust the sword straight through the man’s eye.

Panting, Tommy turned and saw the last human that was standing get stabbed by Phil, who was covered in blood and gore. Tommy imagine that he looked pretty similar. There were about eight bodies on the ground, including Frank and Ben’s.

Tubbo was now helping Wilbur and Techno over the fence, both Tubbo and Wilbur looked like they were trying not to vomit.

Wilbur was holding Techno, one arm underneath his knees and the other around his back, just below his shoulders. Techno’s wings were dragging on the ground, getting blood all over them, and it looked like he was trying not to pass out again.

Tommy turned, scanning the bodies as he felt bile start to build up in his own throat. He swallowed it down and bent over, grasping a large axe that one of the human’s had used.

It was heavy, heavier than the sword. But it would do a lot more damage than the sword would. Tommy stuck the sword through his belt loop and nodded at the others. “Follow me.”

As they passed the bag of coins that Mr. Beck had left, Tommy scooped it up and thrust it into his pocket. It’d be useful, and they were definitely going to need money after this.

There was a man standing there as Tommy pushed open the door to the barn. The human looked startled, and quickly raised his sword to attack him, but he was too slow. Tommy had buried the axe between his eyes before the man could swing.

The man’s body fell to the ground, and Tommy wrenched the axe out without sparing him a second thought.

Night had fallen. Most of the village seemed to be asleep, thankfully. Tommy led the others through the town, sticking to the shadows between buildings. They were so close to the forest, they were almost there.

But of course, not all things go according to plan.

Tommy froze as he turned a corner. There, just before the woods, were at least a dozen men with swords and torches, blocking their path. His grip tightened on the axe in his hand, preparing for a fight.

Then, one of the men stepped forward, eyes narrowed. He was young, not much older than Tommy himself. He was a boy, really.

“You come here, kill us, and expect us to just let you go?” The boy asked, brandishing his sword.

“None of this would’ve happened if you had just left us alone,” Wilbur spat from behind Tommy. “You drove us out of our home, burned it to the ground. Tried to SELL us like we were property! This didn’t have to happen!”

“Those men you killed were fathers!” The boy spat back. “Brothers! Sons! You don’t have any remorse for killing them?!”

“You caused this!” Tommy retorted.

“We lived in those woods, in that house, for years!” Phil shouted. “We have bought food and clothes from you! We have sold you our own crops and livestock! We lived peacefully with you for years, and you didn’t bat an eye! But the moment you found out we were different, that we were wingfolk, you attacked us!”

“What did we ever do to you?!” Tubbo yelled.

The boy said nothing, but another man stepped forward. Tommy recognized him as the same large man who had taken Tubbo the night the house burned.

“You killed our men,” the large man said in a gruff voice. “You are demons, curses upon this town. You will not leave here alive.”

Tommy’s anger mounted, and he took a step forward, ignoring Phil and Tubbo, who tried to pull him back.

“You won’t touch them,” Tommy snarled. He shrugged off the coat, letting it fall to the ground as he hefted his axe.

“What makes you so sure, boy?” The man rumbled, a hint of amusement in his tone. “You’re a human, defending demons. Betraying your own race.”

Tommy laughed, a dry, humorless laugh that caused the man to frown.

“What makes me so sure?” He couldn’t keep the venomous grin off his face as his wings spread fully, for the first time in years.

The large man’s expression turned to one of horror, and so did the other men’s.

“Because you should NEVER cross a phoenix,” Tommy cackled, feeling the fire burn through him as his pitch black feathers turned bright red, orange, and gold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HAVE FINALLY REVEALED WHAT TOMMYS WINGS ARE >:D
> 
> Shits about to go down


	11. Chapter 11

God, Tommy missed this.

He wasn’t exactly sure how he could miss something he’d never done before. But he did.

Fire was burning through his veins, beating along with his heart. It was at his beck and call. Just one thought and he’d blow the humans in this town away into tiny puffs of smoke and not even feel bad about it.

But Phil, Wilbur, Techno, and Tubbo were still there. He knew they must be scared, and hungry, and cold. As much as he wanted to raze this place to the ground, his family was more important than vengeance.

His family.

He wasn’t quite sure when he started referring to them as his family. But it sounded about right.

Focus.

Tommy stared at the humans in front of him, who, stupidly, had yet to run away.

A little murder wouldn’t hurt, though.

He held out a hand, palm up, and a flame appeared in his hand. Tommy stared at it for a moment, before glancing up at the humans once more.

Without even moving, Tommy raised the temperature around the humans in front of him raised drastically. Though he did make sure to keep the temperature where his family was normal. The humans caught fire and crumbled into ash within a second. Even their swords melted into useless blobs of liquid metal before he cooled the air where they had stood.

Tommy blinked, unfazed at what he’d just done. Small fireballs were starting to form on each of his feathers, but they didn’t burn him.

Without turning to look, he sent the flames that were gathered on his feathers out into the village. He let them land on the buildings of the town, expanding the miniature fireballs until the whole village was one blazing inferno. He could sense the scale of the fire without even turning to look.

But the flames stayed far away from Phil, Wilbur, Techno, and Tubbo. He made sure of it. He kept them far enough away that they couldn’t even feel the heat from the fire.

Tommy turned, finally. His murderous expression from earlier was gone. He knew he must look exhausted, because that’s exactly how he felt. If it wasn’t for his determination to keep the flames far away from his family, he was sure that he would’ve passed out by now.

Phil, Wilbur, and Tubbo all had matching expressions. They were scared, and surprised. Were they scared of him? Probably. He did just set fire to an entire town for them.

Techno was grinning at him though, but he barely counted.

“Your wings are changing color little bird,” Techno hummed, his eyes still slightly cloudy.

Tommy glanced at his feathers. Sure enough, the red, orange, and gold was melting back to their usual pitch black color.

“Yeah,” Tommy said, in a dazed tone. Where was he again? He was really tired. Phil would take him home though. He knew that. “Yeah they are.”

“Tommy?” Tubbo asked, taking a step forward.

That’s the last thing Tommy remembered before his vision went dark. He was out before he even hit the ground.

———

Tommy woke up slowly.

He hadn’t woken up slowly since before the house burned down.

It was warm, he noticed. Even though it had been cold outside earlier that night and the first snow of the season would be any day now, he was warm.

He opened his eyes slowly, still feeling very tired. What happened last night? He got Phil, Wilbur, Tubbo, and Techno out and then...

Bile suddenly rose into his throat, and Tommy felt like he was about to puke. He scrambled up, careful not to step on the sleeping bodies around him, and promptly went outside. Pretty much as soon as he stepped out the door, he was vomiting the small amount of food and water he had in his stomach into the grass.

Tommy trembled, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. His throat burned, and he felt awful. He didn’t dare to straighten back up, worried that he’d start to throw up again.

The images of horrified faces crumbling into ash flashed in his mind, and his stomach lurched. Tommy retched, but nothing came out. His stomach was empty.

“Tommy?”

He turned, slowly. His whole body was shaking, and not from the brisk air around him.

Phil stood in the doorway of the house. The house. When did they get to the house? It was made of stone, so the outside looked fine, if not a bit charred. But Tommy hadn’t really processed what the inside looked like for the brief moment he’d been in there. He didn’t have to imagine the ruins that laid inside.

“Are you alright?” Phil asked, looking him up and down with nothing but concern in his gaze.

Tommy stared at him for a moment, before he realized tears were building up in his eyes. His body started to shake harder as he tried to stifle his sobs.

“I killed them,” he whispered. “There were innocents in that town. I killed them.”

Phil’s gaze softened and he took a step forward, reaching out for Tommy. But he flinched back, shuffling backwards a few steps. Phil stopped his approach, looking slightly hurt but more concerned than anything.

“I don’t-” Tommy hated how weak he sounded. “I don’t wanna hurt you.”

“Tommy,” Phil’s voice was soft, reassuring. Comforting. “You won’t hurt me. I know you won’t.”

Tommy stared at him, unsure. “You don’t want me to leave? The others don’t want me to leave?”

“No Tommy, none of us want you to leave,” Phil reassured. “If you want to go, then I won’t stop you. But we don’t want you to leave.”

“But I killed those people,” Tommy whispered uncertainly.

“You did,” Phil agreed. “And you will have to live with that. But we don’t want you to leave because of it. Techno’s killed people. I’ve killed people. Even Wilbur and Tubbo have killed someone before. It’s something you have to live with, but we’re not going to kick you out because of that.”

_But you didn’t kill as many,_ Tommy wanted to say, but the words died in his throat. _You didn’t kill kids, you didn’t kill innocents. I didn’t even feel bad about doing it until now._

“Do you want to stay?” Phil asked gently. “We want you to stay, but if you want to leave, we won’t stop you.”

It’s the same question that’d been presented to him before, and last time he’d said yes. This time, he couldn’t say anything.

But he did nod, when his answer died before it could come out of his mouth.

Phil outstretched his hands, a silent question. Tommy wordlessly answered, by shakily walking into the hug and closing his eyes as Phil wrapped his arms around him. It was cold outside, but Phil was warm. And, oddly, it was getting warmer, the air not being as frigid as it had been a few moments ago.

Was he doing that?

“Tommy, too hot,” Phil said gently, and suddenly the cold wind was back. Tommy hadn’t even realized he was raising the temperature, it must’ve been a subconscious thing.

Tommy took a step back, breaking the hug.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “I didn’t notice I was doing that. Its never happened before.”

“Don’t apologize, it’s alright,” Phil reassured him. “Let’s go inside,”

Tommy nodded, following him into the house. The inside was definitely not in the best shape. There were remnants of the wooden table that they had eaten at, but the pieces were blackened and crumbling. The kitchen looked desolate. But the fireplace was still intact, and there was a fire going.

The walls of the house weren’t keeping the draft in very well, so it was pretty cold. But the fire helped warm things up a bit.

Tubbo and Wilbur were curled up together near the fireplace, Wilbur snoring softly. Techno-

Tommy took one look at Techno and immediately flinched. Phil glanced at him, confused.

“He’s way too hot,” Tommy mumbled. “I can tell. His fever is too high.”

“I made him eat the plant you’d given us,” Phil sighed, gazing concerned at Techno. “But the fever is from the infection of the cut on his side. I don’t have anything to treat it with.”

Tommy rocked back and forth on his feet nervously as an idea popped into his head. _If I can raise the temperature and lower it again, could I lower an already high temperature?_ He wondered, humming slightly. It was risky. _But it might work temporarily._

He went over to Techno and crouched down beside him. He went to touch Techno’s forehead, but hesitated, biting his lip.

_I don’t know what I’m doing. What if I hurt him?_

_I don’t think I have a choice at this point._

Tommy knew how warm someone was supposed to be. Techno was above that temperature by quite a bit. He could save his life.

_Or accidentally end it._

“Tommy?” There was a sleepy mumble from Tubbo. Wilbur was still snoring, but Tubbo was half-awake and staring at him.

“He’s too hot,” Tommy mumbled, shifting his weight until he was sitting down, his hand still hovering over Techno’s forehead.

Phil was staring at him now, confused.

“I have an idea, but..” Tommy hesitated, swallowing nervously. “I don’t know if it’ll work. But it might be our only chance to buy him some more time. He’s too hot, way too hot. It’s not good. I don’t want to hurt him more if this doesn’t work.”

Techno was still asleep, sweat rolling down his face. Wilbur was staring at him now too, also half-asleep.

“Do it,” Phil said quietly. “If you think it’ll help. At this point I don’t think we have another option.”

Tommy glanced at Phil, slightly surprised, before turning his focus back to Techno. He took a deep breath, put his hand on Techno’s forehead, and closed his eyes.

He could feel how hot Techno was beneath his hand, and he knew that he was warmest on his side, where the cut was. Tommy took another deep, shaky breath, before he slowly started to draw the heat away from the wound.

Techno made a choked noise, and Tommy flinched slightly. But instead of stopping, he rested his other hand on Techno’s chest and continued. He felt at how warm Phil, Tubbo, and Wilbur were, estimating that that was the normal body temperature.

All he had to do was take away the heat from Techno until his body temperature matched the others’.

Tommy’s heart was beating a million miles a minute. He had no idea what he was doing.

He kept doing it though. Slowly drawing the heat from the wound in Techno’s side, trying to ignore the small noises of pain the bat was making while he did so. Tommy whispered apologies to him as he kept going, checking every few seconds to see if Techno’s body temperature was right yet.

This wasn’t like snapping his fingers and making metal swords liquify. He had to be careful. Careful meant doing this slowly.

Wilbur, Tubbo, and Phil were being extremely quiet, allowing him to focus his entire attention at the task at hand.

Finally, when he checked Techno’s temperature, it was finally similar to what the others’ were. Tommy lifted his hands off of Techno, opening his eyes warily.

Techno still looked awful, but he was no longer sweating, and he didn’t radiate heat. Tommy lifted the bat’s shirt, checking the wound. It was still swollen and red, but it was no longer hot to the touch.

He let out a breath he hadn’t known he was holding, and he heard Phil, Wilbur, and Tubbo all sigh with relief.

“I’m never doing that ever again,” Tommy sighed, leaning back. “That was awful.”

“That was incredible!” Tubbo exclaimed, his voice low so he didn’t wake Techno. But his green eyes were wide with amazement. “That’s so cool!”

“I don’t know how long it’ll last,” Tommy admitted. “I think it’s just temporary. All I did was lower his temperature, not heal him. I have a book of medicinal plants out in the forest. I stole it when I was looking for the feverfew for him. There’s got to be something in that book that’ll help with infection.”

“Doesn’t hurt to look,” Wilbur commented, getting up and stretching.

“I’m going by myself,” Tommy corrected him, also getting up.

“Absolutely not,” Phil responded immediately, eyes narrowed. “One of us is going with you, whether you like it or not.”

“You’re too loud,” Tommy retorted. “You’ll alert everything in the woods if you come with me. Plus, I bet I can find some food out there too, and you’ll definitely scare everything off.”

“Then I’ll go,” Wilbur suggested. “I’m quiet.”

Tommy raised an eyebrow.

“It’s either he goes, or I do,” Phil said sternly. “You aren’t going by yourself.”

Tommy sighed, frustrated. “Fine. But if you start making too much noise, I’m going to ditch you the first chance I get.”

“No you won’t,” Wilbur said cheerfully as they left what remained of the house.

Tommy refused to admit that Wilbur was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soon I may not be able to respond to every single comment ^^’ there’s a lot of y’all now.
> 
> Come yell at me on twitter! @Rose12610 I’ll post updates and stuff there.


	12. Chapter 12

“This is where I stayed before Phil found me,” Tommy said as they arrived in the small clearing with the tree and the stream not too far away. “I stayed here after the house burned down too.”

“What do you mean you stayed here?” Wilbur was looking around, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “There isn’t a place to stay. Where’d you sleep?”

Tommy raised one eyebrow, and pointed to the tree he had slept in for many weeks.

“How...?” Wilbur trailed off, seeming only more confused. “You can’t fly, what do you do if you fall out of that?”

Tommy shrugged. “Try not to land on my head.”

Wilbur winced, pity flicking across his face. Tommy shot him a look, and the butterfly quickly changed the subject.

“I’m glad that you pretty much radiate heat now,” Wilbur hummed as he glanced around. “It’s fucking cold out here.”

“I hadn’t noticed I was doing that,” Tommy admitted. “Did I do it before?”

“I don’t think so,” Wilbur shrugged.

Tommy’s gaze flicked towards the tree again, and he spotted the book of plants nestled in the branches where he’d left it. It was too high up to try and grab from the ground.

“What are you doing?” Wilbur asked, startled, when Tommy started to hoist himself into the tree.

“Getting the book.”

“You’ll fall.”

“I slept up here for weeks,” Tommy turned and raised an eyebrow at him. “I haven’t fallen once.”

“Yet.”

Tommy rolled his eyes and continued climbing up the tree. He was just short of the book, maybe twenty feet up, when his foot slipped.

Wilbur shrieked, and Tommy flung out his wings for balance as he wrapped both his arms around the branch he’d been holding onto.

“I swear to whatever god that may exist, Wilbur,” Tommy hissed softly as he tried to calm his rapidly beating heart. “If you scream at me one more time, the moment I get down there I’m going to beat your ass.”

“You fell!” Wilbur responded, indignantly.

“I slipped! And caught myself!” He retorted, not daring to look down at him. “I slept up here two days ago! I’ve slipped a ton of times! I haven’t fallen once!”

“You give me anxiety, little bird!” Wilbur called up at him.

“You’ve said that before!” Tommy yelled back, righting himself in the tree. The book was RIGHT THERE, and he refused to fall before he got it.

Finally, after a few more feet, he grabbed the book and stuck it in his mouth, holding it between his teeth. Tommy glanced down at he ground before starting to climb down.

Once he was just a few feet above the ground, he let himself drop, landing on his feet as a jolt went up his spine from the landing. Wilbur was glaring at him.

Tommy took the book out of his mouth and gave him a grin. “Told you I wouldn’t fall.”

Wilbur shook his head, rolling his eyes. “Do you still want to hunt?”

“Oh, our yelling definitely scared most everything away,” Tommy hummed. “I can really only catch squirrels and mice anyway. We could probably fish, though.”

“I’m not good at fishing,” Wilbur admitted. “Too much sitting and waiting.”

Tommy gave him a confused smile. “What kind of fishing are you talking about?”

Wilbur’s expression also became confused. “The sitting? And casting out a line waiting for the fish to bite? That kind.”

“I’ve never heard of that,” Tommy shrugged. “My way is much more fun, don’t worry.”

“I’m suddenly very worried,” Wilbur deadpanned.

———

“My feet are going numb,” Wilbur grumbled as he stood in the rushing water. It was only deep enough to reach his knees, and he’d caught nothing so far.

“You’ll live,” Tommy felt no sympathy for him, standing a little ways away but still in the stream. His hands held a long, sharp stick he’d found in the woods, and his eyes scanned the water.

“You could warm the water,” Wilbur suggested, for the third time in the past five minutes.

“Not if you want me to walk back on my own,” Tommy snapped back, not moving his gaze. “I’m already tired from what I did to Techno earlier, if you don’t want to have to carry me, you’ll have to deal with cold water.”

Wilbur still mumbled complaints under his breath, but nothing directed at Tommy.

They’d been at this for about an hour now, Tommy having caught four or five fish while Wilbur kept missing. But Tommy didn’t blame him for it, the only reason he was good at it was because he’d been doing it for years, and today was a good day. Sometimes he would catch nothing at all.

Tommy thrust his stick into the water, and raised it back up with a flopping fish impaled on the end. It quickly stilled though, from blood loss and since it couldn’t breathe.

“Let’s go,” Tommy hummed, and he heard Wilbur sigh with relief as they waded out of the stream.

Tommy dried his hands on his shirt and picked up the book, flicking through it and squinting at the words. He gave up after a minute and passed it to Wilbur, embarrassed.

“You can probably read faster than I can,” Tommy mumbled. “It took me half a day to find feverfew in that book.”

Wilbur didn’t say a word, didn’t even look at him with pity or sympathy. He took the book and went to the front, scanning a page that was close to the cover. Then, he rapidly flipped through the pages before landing on a specific page.

“Here,” Wilbur pointed at a picture, and Tommy leaned over to look. “Echinacea. Used to treat infection and help with wounds.”

“I’ve seen that flower before,” Tommy’s eyes widened before he took off, forgetting about the fish he’d just caught.

Wilbur shouted something from behind him, but Tommy was full on sprinting through the forest. It was there. He knew where it was, he’d picked a bunch of them when he was bored just the other day.

Sure enough, there was a clump of wilted flower heads laying in the grass, surrounded by more flowers that looked exactly the same as the wilted ones, but, y’know, alive.

Tommy’s excitement mounted, and then fell. What did he need? Was it the flower? The leaves?

“Tommy, I swear, if you run off again-” Wilbur ran, panting into the clearing, before seeing where he was. “That’s-”

“I had been messing around here the other day,” Tommy stared at the flowers. “That’s how I recognized them. What do we need?”

Wilbur looked down at the book. “The leaves, roots, and stems.” He answered, glancing back up.

Tommy was already moving, starting to dig up the clumps of flowers until he could pull them out of the earth. The dirt was hard and unforgiving, and Tommy winced as his fingernails started breaking, but he didn’t stop until he’d pulled up at least a dozen of the plants.

“We can come back for more if we need them,” Tommy said, standing up with the flowers he’d grabbed clutched in his bleeding hands. “Do you have the fish?”

“Your hands-” Wilbur tried to say, but Tommy shot him a look.

“Did you grab the fish?” He asked again, and Wilbur seemed frustrated with him, but he nodded. “Then let’s go. Phil will be worried about us.”

Wilbur silently turned, and they started walking back towards the house.

A little ways in, Tommy noticed that Wilbur was shivering, teeth clicking together every now and then.

Wordlessly, Tommy stepped closer to Wilbur and unfolded one of his wings, wrapping it around the butterfly. He hadn’t been sure of how much heat he’d been radiating before, but seeing how Wilbur practically pressed into him now, he imagined it was enough to be comfortable without being overly hot.

The longer they walked this way, the more Tommy felt aware of how cold his feet were, and how much one of his feet hurt. All of the extra heat he’d been apparently generating without noticing was now focused on keeping Wilbur warm, and it wasn’t protecting his bare feet anymore.

He glanced down at the foot that hurt, and saw that a couple of his toes were swollen and purple. _Definitely broken,_ he thought with a silent sigh. _No wonder my feet have been killing me so much._

Tommy was also vaguely aware of just how exhausted he felt the longer they walked. The hunger pains coming from his stomach he could get used to, he was used to them, after all. But he was so cold, and tired.

The house was coming into view now, and he spotted Phil sitting just outside the door, worry on his face but sword in hand just in case. He stood up as soon as he saw them, and Wilbur disentangled himself from Tommy’s wing as they went up the steps.

Tommy almost fell over, not realizing how much he’d been leaning on Wilbur until he was gone. He flung out both wings to help balance, only putting them away once he had steadied himself.

Phil and Wilbur were looking at him oddly, and Phil seemed as if he was about to say something, but Wilbur nudged him before he could.

“We have some food,” Wilbur changed the subject, a smile on his face. “And the book,”

“And a plant that’ll help with the infection,” Tommy added, trying to seem more cheerful as to not give away his exhaustion. “And WE didn’t do anything. I distinctly remember that I did all that.”

“Details details,” Wilbur shrugged. “I read the book so you knew what to look for.”

Tommy rolled his eyes, turning to Phil. “How’s Techno?”

“Awake, but I don’t think he’s quite aware of what’s going on,” Phil shrugged. “He keeps asking for you, though.”

Tommy nodded, glancing at the sky. It was too cloudy for him to tell what time it was exactly, though he had to imagine that it was early afternoon.

Ignoring a particularly sharp hunger pain that made him wince, he went inside. Techno was sitting up, not too far from the fire, with Tubbo curled up next to him. They were talking quietly, most of what Techno was saying was mumbly and half-formed as Tubbo gave sleepy responses.

Techno’s temperature had raised a bit since Tommy had left, but not high enough to have him worried.

“Hey there Bat,” Tommy said softly, pulling out the nickname as a sort of joke. He crouched down next to Techno. “How are you doing?”

“Tired,” Techno said grumpily. “Feel like shit.”

“I’d honestly be worried if you didn’t,” Tommy chuckled half-heartedly. “You were asking for me?”

“Yeah,” Techno hummed, turning towards him. “You’re thinner.”

Tommy shifted uncomfortably. Was it really that noticeable? Maybe he’d lost more weight than he thought. “I know.”

“Not healthy,” Techno grunted, turning back to the fireplace. “Get some food in you, ‘nless you’re plannin’ on turning into a pile of ash soon.”

Tommy shuddered. “It’s not the most pleasant experience. I’ll eat something, I promise.”

“Good.”

“Tommy?” Tubbo mumbled sleepily, looking up at him with half-closed eyes. “What’s he talkin’ about?”

Tommy hesitated, biting his lip. “I’ll explain later,” he offered. Tubbo seemed to think that was an acceptable answer, as he nodded and closed his eyes.

When he stood up and turned, Phil and Wilbur were staring at him again.

“What did he mean by you turning into a pile of ash?” Phil asked quietly.

“Later,” Tommy insisted, glancing at Techno and Tubbo on the floor. “It won’t happen soon, I think.” He took a handful of the echinacea he’d grabbed out of his pocket and fiddled with the petals. “We should start separating these. Does the book say how to give it to him?”

Wilbur nodded and opened the book, flipping to a specific page. Tommy started to walk forward to help, but a wave of dizziness ran over him. Instinctively, his wings flared out slightly to keep his balance as one of his hands found a wall to rest his weight on.

“Tommy?” Phil asked, worried. “Are you okay?”

“Just dizzy,” Tommy shook his head, trying to clear the black spots from his vision. “Shouldn’t last long.”

“You’re putting out heat again,” Wilbur noted. “Is that on purpose?”

“Probably just natural,” Tommy mumbled, not noticing he’d dropped the flowers as he pressed a hand to his stomach. There were sharp pains coming from his stomach, worse than the usual hunger pains that had been plaguing him for the past week.

“Tommy, you don’t sound okay. Are you sure you’re fine?” Phil had stepped closer now, concern etched into his face.

“I’m tired,” he grunted, feeling his knees wobble as his legs couldn’t quite hold him up anymore. Tommy started sliding down the wall, and he heard someone shout before he was being picked up.

“You’re so light,” Phil sounded... horrified.

“-nap time,” Tommy mumbled, resting his head against Phil’s shoulders as he closed his eyes.

He felt someone try to grab his shoulder and shake him, but he was already drifting off by that point.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School... suck... :/


	13. Chapter 13

Techno stared blankly at Phil, Wilbur, and Tubbo, who were all trying to wake Tommy up while also freaking out.

Finally, when there was a break in the conversation, he spoke up.

“He’s fine,” he mumbled. “He’ll wake up.”

“Techno, he’s not fine. He’s barely breathing!” Tubbo snapped, pacing back and forth with his wings buzzing restlessly.

“Don’t touch him,” Techno said, not paying much attention to Tubbo’s words. “He’ll be back, but it might be a bit.”

“What are you even going on about?” Phil snapped, seeming stressed.

Techno leveled his gaze at Phil, before shakily getting to his feet. Immediately, Wilbur and Tubbo were next to him.

“Techno, no, sit back down,” Wilbur said worriedly, grabbing him to help steady him.

“Get off me,” Techno slapped his hands away, one hand clutching his side where the wound was. “‘Nless you’re gonna help me over there. I’ll show you what I mean.”

Techno wasn’t stupid. He knew he was hurt, and that he probably shouldn’t be walking around. His mind was slightly less foggy than it had been yesterday, but it was still hard to think clearly. His side throbbed slightly as he stared down Wilbur.

Wilbur hesitated for a moment, before he grabbed Techno’s arm and half helped, half carried him over to where Phil had put Tommy down.

Techno sank to the ground, still clutching his side. But with his other hand he gently rested two fingers where Tommy’s jaw met his neck. There was a pulse, weak and faint, but there.

“He’s fine,” Techno grunted. “His body might crumble anyway, just so he can reform healthy, but he’s not dead.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Tubbo demanded.

Techno shot him a look. “There’s an old legend, ‘bout phoenixes. When they die of anything other than old age, their body turns into ash and then reforms itself.”

“A legend,” Phil still seemed worried. “It might not be true.”

“I’m willing to bet that it’s true,” Techno hummed, sitting back. “He said he’s been living on his own for seven years. You really think a nine year old can live that long, in the woods, with no help?”

They’d fallen silent, and Techno continued.

“Plus, I mentioned somethin’ to him before he passed out, about how he was looking much thinner. When I brought up the whole “turning into ash” thing, he kinda winced and said “not the most pleasant experience”. It’s definitely happened before, so yeah, he’ll be fine.”

A few seconds passed, silent.

“You must be feeling better,” Wilbur noted. “That’s the clearest you’ve sounded in a while.”

“Yeah well,” Techno snorted. “I feel like shit, and it’s a bit cloudy up here,” he waved a hand in front of his face. “It’s hard to think straight, but everything’s less foggy than it was yesterday.”

“The echinacea,” Phil said suddenly, eyes wide, before darting away. Wilbur also left, rushing over to Phil as they messed with a book and a dozen or so flowers.

Techno stared at them for a moment, a shadow of a smile flickering on his face. It faded as he turned back to Tubbo, blinking tiredly.

“When Tommy wakes up, give him food and water, obviously,” Techno advised. “If he starts turning to ash, don’t touch him. It’s a good sign, he’ll come back.” The wound on his side throbbed, and Techno winced slightly.

Tubbo stared at him, concerned, but nodded wordlessly.

Techno glanced over at Tommy for a moment, but Phil and Wilbur coming back over caught his attention.

“Drink,” Wilbur thrust a cup of water that had a bunch of suspicious-looking leaves in it. Techno raised an eyebrow at both him and Phil.

“The leaves too?” Techno sounded deadpan, but he was amused at this.

“Drink it,” Phil said tiredly, giving him a warning look.

“Yes, father,” Techno hummed, the cup hiding the small grin that had worked its way onto his face without him noticing.

———

Tubbo was the only one awake the first time Tommy woke up.

He’d been trying to keep the fire alight, as it was cold as fuck outside, when he felt eyes on him.

Tubbo had turned, and saw Tommy staring at him sleepily.

“Wassup,” Tommy mumbled, having pulled himself into a sitting position and was leaning against the wall. He looked much paler than usual, his blonde hair now looking more grayish, and his eyes dull and dark.

Tubbo quickly got to his feet, grabbing some fish they had cooked earlier and had cut into pieces specifically for when Tommy woke up.

“Eat,” Tubbo urged as he crouched down next to Tommy. He held the fork not far from Tommy.

“Not hungry.”

“Please.”

“No point,” Tommy wrinkled his nose at him. “I’m gonna reform soon. It won’t do me any good.”

“So Techno was right? About the turning into ash thing?” Tubbo asked. He lowered the fork, but didn’t put the plate of fish away.

“Mmm, yeah,” Tommy hummed. “It doesn’t look like you think it does. I don’t actually turn into ash. All my color goes away for a few hours, I die, and then it comes back, and then I wake up. It’s happened a several times.”

“That’s kinda how you look right now,” Tubbo pointed out. “All washed out.”

“So it’s happening really soon,” Tommy closed his eyes and sighed. “I hate this part a lot. Just, if I’m not breathing in the morning, don’t freak out.”

“I’ll try,” Tubbo wasn’t sure if he’d avoid freaking out if he woke up and Tommy wasn’t breathing.

Tommy smiled at him. “Go get some sleep, big man. I’ll keep the fire going until I stop breathing, but I won’t be able to keep it up until I reform.”

Tubbo hesitated, reaching out for Tommy’s hand and squeezing it. “I miss when everything was so simple,” he whispered. “At the orphanage. The rivalry you had with that blonde human teenager and his friends. You were always picking fights, even when they were so much bigger than you.”

“They killed your bees,” Tommy chuckled dryly. “And I totally won that fistfight.”

“You sure did,” Tubbo replied sarcastically. “You definitely weren’t on your ass in less than a minute.”

“Hey,” Tommy sounded mock-offended. “It was at least two minutes.”

“Sure it was.”

“Well, you ate dirt in the yard,” Tommy snapped back, a grin on his face.

“So did you!” Tubbo squawked, punching him lightly in the shoulder. “Don’t act like you didn’t!”

“It was your idea!”

“IT WAS NOT!”

“Yeah, it was,” Tommy cackled, as Tubbo turned red in embarrassment. “I distinctly remember that.”

They grinned at each other for a moment, having forgotten about everything else that had been going on recently briefly. Tommy’s face fell, he let go of Tubbo’s hand and poked him in the chest.

“Go get some sleep,” Tommy suddenly seemed much more tired than he had a few seconds ago. He was whispering now. “Don’t panic in the morning if I’m not breathing. I’ll be back, I promise.”

Tubbo felt tears gather in his eyes, but he didn’t let them fall. “Okay,” he agreed reluctantly, getting up and laying down near Phil in an attempt to get some sleep.

Surprisingly, Phil rolled over and flung a wing over Tubbo, grumbling just a little bit. Tubbo took this as an invitation and curled up against Phil, grateful for the warmth.

He had doubted he would get any sleep, but soon his eyelids felt heavy, and darkness rushed up to meet him.

———

“Tommy’s not breathing!”

Tubbo sat up, rubbing his eyes blearily. Techno was also barely awake, staring at Wilbur with an unimpressed look on his face.

Phil was also sitting up, looking slightly panicked. Apparently, he’d been asleep as well when Wilbur shouted.

“He’s fine,” Tubbo yawned. “He woke up last night and we talked. He said he’ll be back.”

“So that’s what you two were talking about,” Phil grumbled.

“If he’s going to be back, why hasn’t he turned to ash yet?” Wilbur demanded. “Why are you all so calm about this?!”

“Sleep deprivation,” Techno said in a deadpan tone.

“You’ve literally been asleep for most of the past few days,” Phil pointed out.

“Phoenixes apparently don’t actually turn into ash,” Tubbo sighed, pushing Phil’s wing off of him and standing up. “He honestly looks better than he did last night.”

“He is literally dead!” Wilbur shouted. “How can he look better when he’s DEAD?!”

“Stop screaming at me, Wilbur!” Tubbo retorted, glancing down at Tommy.

Tommy honestly did look a lot better than he had the night before. His face wasn’t as thin, and the cut on his cheek had turned into a pale scar. He didn’t look nearly as pale, and his hair was brighter.

It was a little odd, not seeing his chest rising and falling, but it was honestly as if Tommy was just asleep.

Techno stared at Tommy for a moment, before glancing at Wilbur. “How often do I have to drink that sorry excuse for tea?”

Wilbur was shaking slightly, Tubbo couldn’t really explain why.

“I’ll go make some more,” Phil rubbed his eyes. “Tubbo, can you keep an eye on Tommy?”

Tubbo nodded, sitting down next to Tommy. Wilbur stomped off, and a few minutes later Tubbo could hear the sound of an axe chopping wood outside. That probably wasn’t good, Wilbur only did that when he was pissed.

Tubbo turned back to Tommy. It was really unnerving, staring at what was essentially his friend’s dead body.

It was early morning, the sun having just risen. If Tubbo had to guess, it had been about four hours since they’d talked. Tommy hadn’t specified how long it might take, just that it might be a few hours.

Tubbo didn’t notice when he fell asleep.

Techno and Phil noticed though, but they didn’t say a word.


	14. Chapter 14

Tommy was faintly aware of the fact that he was breathing.

He hated everything about the reforming process. It was always so... weird. Like, he was still in his body, but he wasn’t breathing, he wasn’t quite alive. It was weird.

But he was breathing again, thankfully. It wasn’t as strange anymore.

Tommy blinked open his eyes, glancing around. Phil was on the other side of the room with Techno, treating the cut on his side. Wilbur wasn’t anywhere in the room, but neither was Tubbo. Where was Tubbo?

Tommy turned his head, wincing slightly at the cracks that came from his neck. Oh yeah, his bones were going to be really loud for the next few hours. He hated that bit too.

Oh, there’s Tubbo.

Tubbo was asleep, leaning against him and drooling into his shoulder. Which was gross, but Tommy wasn’t about to push him off. That’d be rude.

Tommy rolled his neck, wincing as another crack came from it. He lifted the arm that Tubbo wasn’t holding onto, trying to pop his joints.

“You took your time,” Techno hummed, catching Tommy’s attention. He looked up, raising an eyebrow at them.

“I don’t have any control on how long it takes,” Tommy retorted, letting his head rest against the wall.

“How are you feeling?” Phil asked.

“Better,” Tommy admitted. “Just gotta pop my bones, they’ll be making noise for a little while.”

At that moment was when Wilbur came into the house, white flakes adorning his hair and coat as he carried in chopped wood.

“It’s snowing,” Wilbur announced, stacking the wood beside the fireplace and trying to brush the snowflakes out of his hair. He went over to the fire and sat down next to it, sighing.

That’s when he spotted Tommy.

Wilbur stared at him, eyes wide and mouth open, and he slowly stood up.

“Didn’t your mother tell you not to stare?” Tommy chuckled, raising an eyebrow. “Father Phil should have, at least.”

“Do not,” Phil pointed at Tommy with a stern expression. “I’m not your dad.”

“You act like it.”

“You’re awake,” Wilbur whispered, as if he couldn’t believe it.

“I did say I’d wake up, didn’t I?” Tommy shrugged. “Pretty sure I did. Maybe I only told Tubbo.”

“You died.”

“I did, and now I’m back,” Tommy responded. “Dying’s awful, by the way. Don’t try it.”

“How are you so calm about this?!” Wilbur snapped, his volume level raising, and Tubbo shifted against Tommy, grumbling.

“It’s happened before, many times,” Tommy shrugged again. “It sucks, but I’m used to it. I know it might be a bit of a shock to you all, because you’ve never seen it happen before, but I wasn’t concerned.”

Wilbur was trembling. “Maybe you should warn us next time. Or how about this: DON’T LET THERE BE A NEXT TIME!” He snapped.

Tommy blinked in surprise. Everyone was staring at Wilbur now, even Tubbo, who was still half-asleep.

“You were fucking dead,” Wilbur sounded like he was trying not to cry. “Do you know how it feels to wake up and someone you care about is just laying there, dead? To be the first one to see you and realize you’re not breathing? I know we haven’t known each other for long, but you’re family, Tommy. I was scared out of my fucking mind.”

Tommy stared at him, wide eyed, before disentangling himself from Tubbo and standing up. His knees popped, and he winced slightly, but it didn’t stop him from crossing the room and standing in front of Wilbur.

Wilbur was staring at him, still shaking, as Tommy reached and grabbed Wilbur’s hand, bringing it up to his chest and holding it over his heart.

“D’you feel that?” He asked, a little awkwardly. He wasn’t the best at the whole emotions thing, so he was kind of just running on impulse at the moment.

Wilbur was silent, so he took that as a an incentive to continue.

“I’m okay, Wilbur,” Tommy said with a softer tone, tightening his grip on Wilbur’s hand. “This might stop beating, but it’ll always come back. Until one day, many, many years from now, it won’t come back when it stops. But you have a long time before you have to worry about that.”

Wilbur stared at him for another couple of seconds, before suddenly pulling Tommy into a hug.

Tommy stiffened. He wasn’t good at these. Where was he supposed to put his hands? His wings felt awkward and out of place. He wasn’t good at hugs.

Still, he tentatively tried his best to hug back, but he couldn’t help but feeling like he was doing it wrong.

“Better?” Tommy asked as soon as Wilbur pulled away.

Wilbur nodded. “Don’t you ever fucking die again,” he said sternly.

“That’s the plan.”

———

The days went by.

Techno was deemed fit enough to move around a few days after Tommy came back, but he had to have someone with him in case he strained himself too much.

The crops that had been in the fields around the house were either trampled or burned. All the animals were missing (presumably escaped) or were slaughtered and left there, and were now rotting. The food they had stored had been burned along with the house, so that was nothing but ash.

Tommy’s knowledge of how to survive in the forest had become invaluable. He was teaching them how to fish (his way, as it procured more fish faster than the sitting way that the others knew). He taught them how to track animals across the snow, how to climb trees and steals eggs from birds’ nests. How to stuff pine needles on the inside of coats to keep you warm for a longer period of time.

It was harder than it had been when he was on his own. There were four other people he was getting food for, and when he was on his own he never stayed in the same place for more than a couple weeks, so that way he didn’t run out of food sources.

They weren’t used to eating only once a day. Tommy was. The food that was available in the forest around them was running out. Tommy kept pushing more food towards the others, especially Techno, who was still healing. Ignoring the fact that he was working twice as hard while eating half as much. He was used to hunger pain, they weren’t.

Finally, when he’d spent all damn day looking around for food and coming up practically empty-handed, Tommy had enough.

“Okay, listen,” Tommy said as soon as he came in the door. He was exhausted, but once he saw how Tubbo was struggling with keeping the fire lit, he snapped his fingers and the flame jumped up. That caught everyone’s attention, and the turned to look at him. “We need to seriously start considering how long we can stay here.”

“What do you mean?” Tubbo asked, confused.

“Food in the woods is finite,” Tommy explained. “We’re exhausting the food sources we have nearby. I was out all day, and all I have to show for it is a rabbit and two fish. We still have a long time before the snow starts thawing so we can plant anything. We need to start thinking about leaving while we still have the strength to make it to the next town.”

Phil sighed. “I think you’re right. People have started showing up in the village remains as well. It’s only a matter of time before we’re being hunted down again.”

“We have shelter here,” Wilbur argued. “And we’re more prepared this time. They’re won’t be as many, we can hold them off.”

“Shelter doesn’t matter if we all starve to death while inside it!” Tommy retorted. “And then I’ll still be around, on my own again because I don’t have the luxury of staying dead.”

“Tommy’s right,” Tubbo interjected. “Staying here won’t do us any good if we’re dead before spring.”

Techno, always one to be silent, surprisingly entered the conversation. “The house is falling apart anyway. We should’ve left already.”

Wilbur sighed and nodded. “You’re right. Just the sentimentality speaking, I guess.”

“Well, this leads me to my next point,” Tommy rolled his shoulders slightly, a habit from when he kept his wings in most of the time. “I know a town that I’ve visited before, up north. We can go there, but it’s far. I don’t think walking would be the best idea.”

“What are you suggesting?” Phil asked. “Wilbur can’t fly, his wings still healing, and you can’t fly either. I’m not sure how comfortable I am with Techno flying just yet.”

“Hey,” Techno protested. “The fogginess is gone. I’m fine.”

“You literally have a hole in your side,” Wilbur deadpanned.

“What I’m trying to say is,” Tommy cut in, slightly annoyed. “Teach me to fly.”


	15. Chapter 15

This was not how Tommy imagined flying lessons would go.

He pushed the snow out of his hair, grumbling, as he stood up.

“You almost got into the air that time!” Phil tried to cheer him up, giving him a reassuring smile.

“I wish I had Tubbo’s wings,” Tommy complained shaking snow off of his feathers. “He can just start buzzing and then he’s in the air. None of this running start shit.”

“To be fair,” Tubbo interjected from the window. He was sitting inside, away from the snow, watching. “It took me a while to do that without falling on my face.”

Tommy shot a half-hearted glare in his direction, and Techno started snickering from where he was sitting beside Tubbo.

“Don’t laugh, Techno,” Phil warned. “I remember I had to teach you to fly too. I can start telling Tommy about your first attempts, if you want to keep snickering over there.”

Techno immediately quieted, his face paling and his eyes going wide.

“That’s what I thought,” Phil said smugly, and Tommy snorted. “Try again, Tommy.”

Tommy rolled his eyes and half-spread his wings before taking off through the snow. Once he was about halfway across the clearing that their house sat in, he jumped and pushed his wings down, then pulled them up, and pushed them down, and pulled them up again. He shut his eyes tightly, bracing for impact with the ground.

He hit the ground face first, like the rest of his attempts.

Angry, Tommy grabbed a fistful of snow and chucked it at a nearby tree. It hit the trunk with a less than satisfying poof.

“Stop closing your eyes,” Phil advised as Tommy stood up again. “You’re don’t know where you’re going that way. It’s making you panic and fall, because your instincts think you’re going to run into something.”

“You didn’t say it was going to be this HARD,” Tommy grumbled, angrily shaking the snow off his feathers.

“Be glad you’re doing this when there’s snow on the ground,” Phil retorted. “I learned during the summer. Broke my nose.”

Just to prove a point, Tommy melted the snow around him with a burst of heat, glaring at Phil.

“Stop getting mad at me over this!” Phil snapped. “I ate shit plenty of times. So did Techno. You can’t expect to learn to fly in one day. I get that you’re frustrated, I was too. You’re just going to have to accept the fact that this isn’t something you can just magically figure out how to do on the first try.”

Tommy kept glaring at him. Yeah, his anger towards Phil was misplaced. He was frustrated with himself. Why was this such a pain in the ass?

“Again,” Phil gestured forward. “Eyes open this time.”

Grumbling, Tommy half-spread his wings, and sprinted across the snow, facing towards the house now. He jumped (forcing his eyes to stay open, probably with a furious look on his face) and pushed his wings down, and then pulled them up, and-

And then he was in the snow again.

“Okay, as funny as this is,” Techno drawled from where he was in the window. “I have an idea.”

“I’m all ears,” Tommy grumbled sitting up.

Techno disappeared from the window and came outside, gesturing for Phil and Tommy to come over to him.

“Phil, all due respect, but I don’t think the running start thing is going to help him,” Techno said as soon as they were both near him. “Look, Tommy, spread your wings out. Fully.”

Tommy did so, being careful to not whack Phil in the face.

“Tommy, your wings are much bigger than Phil’s,” Techno pointed out, nodding at Phil who also spread out his wings. “Phil and I have a similar wingspan, but yours is much bigger, probably because your a phoenix and Phil’s a raven. I have a theory that since your wings are bigger, and therefore heavier, trying to get into the air with a running start is probably not going to do you any good if you don’t know how to move your wings when you’re aloft.”

“What do you suggest?” Phil asked, but Tommy’s mind was already whirling and shutting out the conversation.

He’d been in the air before, albeit not for very long. He’d really only fell more slowly, really. Would that count?

Tommy turned slowly, scanning the trees and the roof of the house. He dismissed the house immediately, as who knew if the roof would hold his weight anymore, and how the hell was he supposed to get up there anyway?

But he could climb trees. He was good at that.

There were a few trees that were pretty tall nearby, but he had to rate them on how easy they would be to climb, and whether the upper branches would be able to hold his weight.

His eyes fell on a rather tall pine tree. There weren’t any good low hanging branches, but there was an oak next to it that would pretty easy to climb, and then he could just jump from one to the other.

Tommy started making his way over to the two trees, only vaguely aware of Phil and Techno still talking nearby. He felt eyes on him, though. Probably Wilbur and Tubbo.

He hoisted himself into the oak tree, carefully climbing until he was about ten feet off the ground. He scooted along a particular branch until he was within reach of the pine tree.

Tommy’s wings were pressed tightly against his back as he took a deep breath. Then, he jumped.

A scream nearly caused him to miss the jump, and his wings flung out instinctively. One wing slammed painfully into the trunk of the pine tree, and he winced, but he managed to catch himself on one of the branches.

Taking a moment to calm his rapidly beating heart, he whipped his head around and glared at the direction of the scream.

“Wilbur, I swear to whatever god may exist, shut the fuck up!” Tommy yelled back.

“Why are you blaming me?!” Wilbur shouted back, and Tommy could see that both he and Tubbo had left the house now. “I didn’t do it!”

“Tommy, get down!” Phil shouted.

“Stop freaking out!” Tommy retorted. “If you keep yelling at me, then I WILL fall!”

“Please don’t!” Tubbo called. “I don’t want you breaking your leg again!”

“That was ten years ago!” Tommy protested. “And it was your fault!”

“You pressured me into it!” Tubbo retorted, and Tommy could see, even from a distance, that his wings were flicking angrily. “I KNEW that I would drop you if I tried carrying you while flying! We were SIX!”

“I don’t remember that!~” Tommy called back cheerfully.

“OF COURSE YOU DON’T!” Tubbo threw his hands up in the air in frustration.

Tommy grinned as he righted himself on the branch and began to climb again, nimbly hopping from branch to branch as he got higher and higher into the tree.

“Tommy, please come down!” Phil called worriedly.

“I’ll be fine dad!” Tommy teased, before pausing. He gingerly tested the next branch he was about to climb on, pushing down with his hand. It bent. Not good.

_Alright, this is high enough anyway,_ Tommy thought to himself, scooting along the branch until it began to dip dangerously underneath his weight. He was about forty feet up now.

“Tommy, I swear, if you fall, I’m going to beat your ass!” Wilbur shouted.

“Calm down!” Tommy reassured, spreading out his wings. “I know what I’m doing!”

“Don’t you dare fucking jump!” Tubbo yelled suddenly. “I know you, Tommy. If you jump off that branch I will KILL you!”

Tommy shot him a grin, before promptly jumping off the branch.

He heard Phil shriek, and the rapid beating of wings as someone took to the air.

Tommy ignored them, and kept his wings open, pushing them down and pulling them up every now and then.

“I told you!” He yelled cheerfully. “I told you I wouldn’t fall!”

“Oh yeah?” An amused sounding Techno suddenly said from right beside him. Tommy nearly fell out of the air in surprise, seeing Techno flying next to him with a smirk on his face. “Try turning. Or landing.”

Tommy blanched. He hadn’t thought that far ahead.

Techno saw the look on his face and laughed, also startling Tommy. He’d never heard him laugh before.

“Tilt your body at an angle, push one wing down and the other up,” Techno instructed, and Tommy did so, turning to the left. Techno followed him just a second later.

“I am going to fall out of the sky,” Tommy breathed as he righted himself. Techno laughed again.

“Probably, but I’ll try to help you a bit before that.”

Despite how his heart was racing a million miles a minute, the cold wind felt good. It brushed his feathers and pushed his hair all over the place and snapped at his clothes. The ground was far beneath him and it felt like he could touch the clouds if he wanted to.

It was freeing.

He was flying.

And then he was falling, because he forgot to flap.

Tommy shrieked as his body tumbled through the air. There were other people shrieking too, but he had no idea who. He shut his eyes and braced for his impact with the ground. Falling was so much more terrifying when he knew how to right himself but couldn’t.

Something heavy crashed into him, and he instinctively latched onto it, and whoever it was grabbed him right back.

A second later, he had landed in the snow with a poof.

There was something on top of him, clutching him tightly. Tommy had sank into the snow quite a bit, but his body wasn’t quite on the ground.

Whoever was holding onto him let go, and Tommy immediately sat up, spitting snow out of his mouth and rubbing it away from his eyes so he could open them. Phil was apparently the one who had grabbed him, and he had now rolled off of him and was also laying in the snow.

“Never, fucking, do, that, again,” Phil hissed, shooting him a look.

“It was fun while it lasted,” Tommy grunted. “You’re on my wing.”

Phil scrambled up and turned, helping him up as well as Techno landed beside them, feet first. Instead of face first.

“I mean, he lasted longer than I thought he would,” Techno drawled, a smirk on his face.

Tommy shot him a glare, before suddenly he was knocked into the snow again by something heavy.

“I TOLD YOU NOT TO JUMP OFF THAT DAMN BRANCH!” Tubbo screeched, pinning Tommy to the ground.

“Mercy!” Tommy struggled. “GET OFF!”

He twisted himself out of Tubbo’s grip and stood up, only to be tackled again.

“I SAID MERCY!” Tommy shrieked. “You remember mercy, right?!”

“I told you I was gonna kill you if you jumped off that branch!” Tubbo retorted.

Tommy managed to wiggle out again, but instead of trying to run, he just tackled Tubbo into the snow instead.

“OH YOU WANNA PLAY THIS GAME?!” Tubbo shrieked, and suddenly they were wrestling like they used to do back at the orphanage. “I’VE KICKED YOUR SCRAWNY ASS BEFORE, YOU PLUCKED CHICKEN!”

“THERE’S NO NEED TO BRING NAME-CALLING INTO THIS!” Tommy retorted.

“HEY!”

Tommy and Tubbo immediately stopped at the sound of Phil shouting. Tommy looked up guiltily at where he had ensnared Tubbo on the ground.

“Break it up,” Phil said sternly. Tommy let go of Tubbo and stood up, shaking the snow off of himself. Tubbo did the same.

“What the fuck is happening right now?” Wilbur demanded, while Techno looked on in amusement. “When have you done this before?”

“That’s seriously what you’re asking right now?” Phil asked, exasperated. “What I want to know is, why were you talking about stuff that happened ten years ago? You didn’t know each other back then.”

Tommy and Tubbo exchanged a look.

“Well...” Tubbo started, then looked at Tommy meaningfully.

“We kinda did know each other ten years ago,” Tommy shifted his weight from foot to foot, nervous. “We lived in the same orphanage. We got separated when it burned down.”

“We figured it out literally the day before the house burned down,” Tubbo also seemed slightly uncomfortable.

“So that’s why you two seemed closer that day,” Techno hummed. “And it explains why Tommy’s so damn protective of you.”

“I am not!” Tommy squawked in indignation.

“You are though,” Wilbur cooed, tapping him on the nose. “It’s kind of sweet. Like, whenever Tubbo’s struggling with the fire you always make it bigger. Or when you’re hunting and he starts shivering you put your wing around him to heat him up.”

Tommy’s face was burning as Phil started cackling at the expression on his face.

“You did kill like, two people the minute that they dragged him out of the house,” Techno pointed out in a bored voice.

“SHUT IT!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote the final half of this while drugged while sick when i have an essay due in less than three hours that’s worth twenty percent of my grade


	16. Chapter 16

Two days later, they were leaving.

They would’ve stayed longer, if not for Wilbur spotting a group of humans shooting down a deer and dragging it towards the burned village not far from the house.

They had to leave.

What little food and extra clothes they had left were packed into bags, Techno’s sword and Tommy’s axe were attached to their belts just in case.

Tommy had been practicing flying for the past few days, and had eventually gotten the hang of taking off from the ground. He also wasn’t prone to falling out of the sky anymore, which he was grateful for. He knew how to land, and how to turn. Phil promised to teach him the more complicated maneuvers later.

Still, Wilbur was not thrilled that Tommy would be one of the ones to carry him as they journeyed, but he didn’t have a say in the matter.

They all slept through the day and woke at nightfall, but before they left, they stopped and stared at the house.

Tommy hadn’t lived there long, so he didn’t feel too terrible about leaving, but he couldn’t imagine what the others were feeling.

After a few moments of them looking at the house, Phil sighed and turned towards Tommy. “Whenever your ready, take the lead.”

“Well,” Tommy felt awkward as he was put on the spot. “Give me a minute.”

He glanced up at the sky, glad that it was a clear day so he could see the stars. Tommy was very thankful that he was smart and always traveled at night so he knew which direction he would go depending on the stars.

Tommy raised a hand towards the sky and closed one of his eyes, rotating his hand slightly until he spotted the right place.

He lowered his hand and nodded at the others, spreading his wings and launching himself into the air. Tommy heard the buzzing of Tubbo’s wings first, and then the loud flapping that were Techno and Phil’s wings.

Wilbur was being carried by Phil at the moment, though Tommy was sure that they would switch out later.

The village he was thinking of was a three day walk from the house, but they could fly much faster than they could walk. It might only be a couple hours before they arrive, but Tommy wasn’t quite sure.

About half an hour into the trip, Phil spoke up. “Time to switch, my arms are getting tired.”

Tommy nodded and angled his body towards land, tucking his wings in close as the wind snapped at him as he dove. He flung out his wings at the right time and caught himself before he slammed face first into the ground.

Tubbo landed next, then Phil and Wilbur, and then Techno.

“I’ll take him next,” Tommy offered, stretching.

“No way,” Wilbur pointed at him. “I’m not riding with you. You barely know how to fly!”

Tommy promptly ignored him, turning to Tubbo. “How are you doing? Need to slow down yet?”

Tubbo shook his head. “Let me rest for a second though.”

“Techno?” Tommy turned towards the bat in question, who grunted in response. That was probably the best he was going to get from him, so Tommy took it as a sign he was doing fine.

They sat there for a couple minutes, taking a break from flying to stretch and relax. They didn’t dare make a fire, but Tommy was keeping the air around them warm enough to be comfortable.

Then, they were off again, Wilbur protesting the whole time as they got ready to take off.

Tommy eventually got sick of his complaining and just grabbed him and launched them both into the sky, Wilbur shrieking the whole way.

“If you keep squirming, I’m going to drop you on purpose,” Tommy threatened as he leveled out.

“He won’t,” Tubbo gave Tommy a stern look.

“I won’t,” Tommy agreed reluctantly. “I’ll be very tempted too, though.”

“Shut the fuck up and focus on flying,” Wilbur hissed. He clutching onto Tommy like a lifeline, which he technically was, so that made sense.

“It’s like you have no faith in me at all,” Tommy hummed. “I am leading the way, you know. You don’t trust me to carry you?”

“You learned to fly two days ago!” Wilbur protested. “My worries are justified.”

“Shut up so I can figure out if we’re going in the right direction,” Tommy grumbled.

“YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW?!” Wilbur screeched.

“My ears,” Tommy deadpanned. “And I do know where we’re going, I just need to check if we’re facing the right direction, asshole.”

Tommy glanced up at the stars, having a bit more trouble than usual due to both of his hands being occupied and not being able to map out the stars like he usually did. He furrowed his brows for a minute, before sighing defeatedly.

“Wilbur, put one of your hands up, like you’re giving someone a high five,” he said.

“What? Why?”

“So I can map the stars. Both of my hands are currently occupied, so unless you want me to let go of you, you’re going to have to help me.”

Grumbling, Wilbur raised his hand up and Tommy squinted at it.

“Slightly to your left. Too far, go back a bit. Okay, just a little up now... there! Don’t move,” Tommy instructed, narrowing his eyes further. “Okay, you can put your hand down now. I just wanted to make sure.”

They flew along in silence for a while after that.

“How are you doing?” Tubbo asked. It’d been about an hour while since they last landed.

“Fine,” Tommy grunted, though Wilbur’s weight was starting to get to him now. His back was growing sore, and so were his wings, but he could deal with that. “How are you?”

“Probably need to slow down soon, but I’m good for a while longer,” Tubbo reassured him. “Techno? How are you doing?”

There was no response, and Tommy turned his head to try and spot Techno.

The bat was just a little behind, one hand pressed against his side and his face was strained.

“Techno?” Phil asked. “Tommy, slow down.”

“How?” Tommy asked.

“Tilt the tops of your wings upward a bit.”

Tommy did so, and found his speed reduced quite a bit until he was flying beside Techno.

“How are you doing Techno?” Wilbur asked worriedly.

Tommy saw the bat hesitate before answering. “My side hurts, but it’s not bleeding or anything. I can keep going.”

“No, let’s land,” Phil suggested. “I don’t want you straining yourself.”

“Don’t you dare fucking dive while you’re holding me,” Wilbur demanded as Tommy started to slow.

“I’m fine,” Techno snapped. “I’ll manage.”

“We’re landing, you can’t stop us,” Tubbo snapped right back. “I’ll drag you to the ground if I have to and you know it.”

“I’d help, if my hands weren’t full,” Tommy grumbled. His back was killing him at the moment. “Wilbur, why are you so damn heavy?”

“If I’m that heavy, just land already,” Wilbur snarked back.

Tommy felt a grin worm its way onto his face. “If you say so.”

Tommy folded his wings and they dropped like a stone, Wilbur screaming his head off while Tommy cackled, opening his wings just a moment later. They hadn’t fallen more than a few feet.

“I’m never riding with you again,” Wilbur’s nails were digging into Tommy hard enough to draw blood.

“The way you’re killing my back and wings, I don’t think I’ll be able to carry you again,” Tommy grunted in response as he neared the ground, slowly this time.

“Why didn’t you say something earlier?”

“I’m used to pain, remember?”

“THAT DOESN’T MAKE IT OKAY!”

“This conversation is over,” Tommy snapped, dropping Wilbur the last couple feet onto the ground before landing himself. “I’m fine.”

“You are not fine,” Wilbur retorted, ignoring the quiet sounds of Techno, Phil, and Tubbo landing. “If your back was hurting you should have told us and we could’ve switched earlier.”

“Your back is hurting? Why didn’t you say something?” Tubbo asked, sounding worried. Phil glanced at Tommy, concerned.

“I’m fine, stop making a fuss about it,” Tommy muttered, shaking out his wings to try and get some feeling back into them.

“Maybe we should stop for tonight,” Phil suggested. “Give both you and Techno a chance to rest.”

“I’m fine!” Tommy and Techno said in unison, glancing at each other afterwards.

Phil raised an eyebrow at the both of them.

“We can’t stop,” Tommy protested. “We’d have to wait all day until night again so I know where we’re going. We don’t have shelter, and it’s fucking freezing out here.”

“He does have a point,” Techno drawled. “We have to keep going.”

“How far away are we?” Tubbo asked Tommy.

“I’m not completely sure,” he shifted back and forth on his feet. His wings were really sore. “It’s somewhere between here and those mountains to north and west. If we go east we’ll hit the ocean, and that’s too far. So we’re nearby. Traveling by the stars isn’t an exact method. I’ve been mostly guessing the general area, and right now we’re in it.”

“Didn’t you just come from here before showing up in the town next to the house?” Wilbur asked skeptically.

Tommy shot him a glare. “Almost three months ago. And I was walking. And it wasn’t snowing. Things look different.”

“Stop fighting,” Phil said sternly. “Tommy come here.”

Tommy tried to protest, but eventually the looks that Phil was giving him caused him to shut up and do as he was told. Phil sat him down in front of him before also sitting down. As soon as Phil started massaging the sore muscles in Tommy’s wings, Tommy melted.

“I really need to teach you how to take care of these,” Phil muttered. “Your wings look awful. So many of your feathers are bent.”

“He makes me help him with his,” Techno told Tommy.

“Because you have a better eye than I do,” Phil hummed. “And you don’t even have feathers.”

Tommy sighed contently, closing his eyes. Last time Phil had done this was when he first forced his wings out, and he’d been in too much pain to notice how nice it felt to have someone comb through his feathers.

“Oh,” Phil’s fingers froze, and Tommy opened his eyes, confused about why he stopped.

Oh.

His feathers were changing color again. Melting from inky black into the blend of red, orange, and gold they’d only ever been a couple times before. The feathers were also fluffing out, something Tommy’d never seen them do before.

“Aww...” Phil cooed. “I wasn’t sure if phoenixes could do that, because I’ve never seen you do it before.”

“Do what? The fluffing thing?” Tommy asked, before all thoughts went out of his head as soon as Phil started grooming his wings again. “... I’ve never seen ‘em do that before either,” he mumbled.

“It’s something birds do when they’re happy and feel safe,” Phil hummed, and Tommy could practically hear the smile on his face. “Us feathereds do it too. I assumedthat since you never did it, that phoenixes just couldn’t.”

Tommy had closed his eyes again by that point, humming to acknowledge the fact he had heard him.

“Aw...” he heard Tubbo from not far away. “You look very comfy over there Tommy,”

Tommy made a small noise to of acknowledgement but said nothing.

To his surprise, a second pair of hands started combing through his feathers as well. These ones were more calloused, but they were gentle and moved with efficiency. Tommy instantly recognized them as Techno’s.

“You do this way too slowly, Phil,” Techno deadpanned.

“I’m trying not to hurt him.”

“Hurt him? He’s practically asleep and he’s melting the damn snow with how much heat he’s putting out.”

“Too warm?” Tommy asked, opening his eyes. He hadn’t noticed he was raising the temperature.

“No, you’re fine,” Tubbo plopped himself next to Tommy and leaned up against him, sighing contently.

“More than fine,” Wilbur was sitting on his other side now. “Don’t stop, honestly.”

“Wilbur, help,” Techno nudged Wilbur, who groaned, but did turn around to start running his hands through Tommy’s feathers as well.

Tommy made a small high pitched sound that he didn’t have a name for and melted against Tubbo, who was practically supporting him now instead of the other way around.

His brain felt fuzzy, but in a good way and not a sick way. He felt warm (even though it was below freezing), and safe (they’d never be safe, not truly), and at home (they didn’t have a home). He was with his family.

Tommy wouldn’t wish for anything else.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Subscribe to Philza Minecraft
> 
> Sorry for being slightly late, I got caught up in my eldritch horror au


	17. Chapter 17

“Man, if I had known that the way to get you to put out heat involuntarily was to pet you, I would’ve done it a long time ago,” Wilbur joked. Tubbo started snickering, and Tommy shot them both a half-hearted glare.

“Don’t tease,” Phil warned.

“He’s right though,” Techno drawled. “We should just start preening your wings whenever we get cold,”

“Shut up,” Tommy whined, burying his head into Tubbo’s shoulder to hide his burning cheeks. “I can’t help it. It just feels really nice...”

“You’ve never had your wings preened before, have you?” Phil asked gently.

“Mmm... no...” he mumbled, shivering as someone started working on a particularly sore spot.

“That’s why you’re reacting so strongly, then,” Phil sounded amused. “Preening is a social behavior that feathereds typically do with each other. You’re not used to it, so your body’s kind of overwhelmed.”

“Ah,” he shivered again. Tubbo was the only thing keeping him upright, honestly. 

“Do you want to tell him the story about how I’m the only one not allowed to touch Phil’s wings when we’re helping?” Tubbo asked, snickering.

“God, that’s a horror story,” Wilbur shivered. “And I don’t even have feathers, I was just a witness.”

“You gave me bald spots, Tubbo,” Phil deadpanned. “So word of warning Tommy, don’t let Tubbo preen your feathers. He’ll end up yanking most of them out.”

“What does it feel like?” Tubbo sounded curious. “The preening part, not the yanking feathers out part.”

“Kinda like someone running a hand through your hair,” Tommy mumbled into Tubbo’s shoulder. “But like, satisfying in a way. It feels really good and it feels like something you’d only do with somebody you trust.”

“Essentially,” Phil agreed. “Typically feathereds in the same family or flock do it. And it does feel nice.”

“We’re basically just petting you at this point,” Wilbur teased. “There’s nothing left to fix.”

“Speak for yourself,” Techno grunted. “His flight feathers are all bent. How the hell were you flying with these?”

“I dunno,” Tommy shrugged sleepily.

“The moment we get a chance, I’m going to teach you how to take care of these properly,” Phil sighed.

“Don’t you dare fall asleep on me, bitch,” Tubbo jabbed Tommy in the ribs, causing him to sit up and rub his eyes.

“I know, gotta keep moving,” Tommy batted away his hand when Tubbo went in to poke him again.

“Just wait another minute and let me fix your flight feathers,” Techno snapped. “You bent them all out of wack.”

“How do you know so much about this?” Tommy asked.

“Phil forcing me and Wilbur to help him with his wings,” Techno deadpanned.

“I didn’t force you!” Phil squawked indignantly. “I distinctly remember when you were younger you begged me to let you play with my feathers.”

“Lies.” Both Techno and Wilbur said in unison.

“You definitely did,” Tubbo hummed. “I remember you doing that even when I showed up.”

Tommy snickered, and someone tugged on his feathers, causing them to throb. He yelped, pulling his wings away sharply and standing up.

“That’s just rude, you’re just being rude to me,” Tommy shot a glare at them.

Phil raised his hands in mock-surrender. “I didn’t do it,”

Wilbur shot Tommy a grin, Techno also had a grin on his face.

“I believe you Phil,” Tommy narrowed his eyes at Wilbur and Techno, before turning away and shaking out his wings. “That feels much better, actually. Thank you.”

“Your welcome,” Phil stood up, brushing the snow off of him.

“Let’s get moving,” Tommy spread his wings. “I can grab Wilbur again.”

“Not happening,” Phil gave him a stern look. “And Techno, you’re not carrying him either. You’re both hurt. I’ll carry him for now. We aren’t too far from the village, right?”

“It can’t be far now,” Tommy agreed. “We’re in the general area, we’ll just need to spot it from above at this point.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Tubbo got to his feet and a second later he was in the air, followed by Techno.

Tommy spread his wings and leaped into the air, Phil and Wilbur just behind him.

Once again, Tommy took the lead, climbing until they were a good distance off the ground before leveling out. He kept his eyes toward the ground, scanning for the golden light of a village among the snowy landscape.

He spotted it a couple minutes later, almost hidden by how dense the pine needles of the trees were and how much snow was layered on top of everything.

Tommy pointed, and the others got the hint, as they all landed again not far from the village.

“Dibs on walking next to Tommy,” Tubbo called, immediately rushing over and practically standing shoulder to shoulder with him.

“Wings in first,” Phil cautioned, and Tubbo rolled his eyes but agreed.

Once everyone’s wings in, Phil, Techno, and Wilbur all looked at Tommy expectantly.

Tommy swallowed, took a deep breath, and slowly tried to pull his wings underneath his skin.

Just like before, a sharp pain jolted through his back and wings, and he winced. But the longer he tried, the worse the pain got, even though nothing was actually happening.

“Still doesn’t work,” he told Tubbo.

“Damn,” Tubbo cursed. “Phil, do you still have the extra coat?”

“Why?” Phil raised an eyebrow before his eyes widened. “You can’t put them back anymore, can you?”

“No,” Tommy shifted uncomfortably. “I found out when the house burned and I tried to put them away. That’s why we came downstairs. Tubbo said your coat would be able to cover them. And technically, since I was masquerading around as a human for a week in it, it did work.”

“Must be a side effect of you having them in your back for so long so often,” Techno drawled. “I’m still surprised that didn’t ruin them completely.”

“Oh it probably did,” Tommy said awkwardly. “But when I died my wings would’ve healed themselves. I guess my ability to put them back didn’t, though.”

Phil stared at him for a moment, an unreadable expression on his face, before he tossed him the extra coat.

It was the same one he’d used before, so it was still dirty and torn. But considering the rest of his clothes were also dirty and torn, it didn’t matter much.

Tommy folded his wings tightly against his back and pulled the coat on, effectively causing his wings to vanish from view.

Well, except for the bright gold and orange feathers that were peaking out from behind his legs.

“Damnit,” Tommy hissed. “Go black already!”

His feathers, stubbornly, did not do as they were told and did not melt back into their usual black color.

“It’s not that noticeable,” Wilbur shrugged. “It should be fine.”

“I hope so,” Tommy pulled on the sleeves of the coat, a nervous habit he’d picked up when he’d worn it often. “There isn’t exactly mud or anything to cover it up with, so I don’t really have a choice.”

Tommy pulled the coat around so it hid the axe stuck through his pants, and Techno did the same with his cloak to hide the sword he was carrying.

“Who has the bag of coin we picked up off the rich scumbag?” Wilbur asked, and Techno pulled it out of his pack.

Phil opened his hands and gestured for Techno to throw it to him, and he did. Phil caught it and attached it to his belt.

“Ready?” Phil asked, and everyone nodded. “Lead the way Tommy.”

Tommy started walking through the woods in the direction of the firelight that signaled where the village was. It was early morning by this point, and due to the fact the sun wasn’t up, not many people were up and about.

But Tommy remembered who would be awake at this point.

He stopped outside the door of a familiar, rather large building and rapped gently on the door.

About a minute passed, and Tommy knocked again, and a very flustered, short man with brown hair and green eyes opened the door.

“Oh!” the man yelped. “Sorry, I wasn’t expecting visitors this early. How many rooms do you want?”

“Two,” Tommy said politely. “One with a couch as well would be nice, there’s five of us.”

“Okay, I’ll see what I have available,” he stepped back in order to let them in. “Come in, come in! You can warm up by the fire. I’ll wake someone up to make some coffee, if you want?”

“No, that’s fine, we’ve had a long night, so just let us know when the rooms are ready, Bad,” Tommy gave him a smile.

“Oh! I know you!” Bad grinned. “Tommy! You made friends!”

Tommy laughed, and nudged the others inside. “No, they’re family. I was runnin’ around by myself for a few months. Teenage stuff, you know how it is.”

“Gave us a fuckin’ heart attack when you ran off like that,” Wilbur jumped on the bandwagon, jabbing Tommy in the ribs lightheartedly.

“Just a fair warning, I have a major rule around here,” Bad arched an eyebrow at them. “No cursing. I’ll let that one slide since you didn’t know...”

“Wilbur,” Wilbur offered.

“Wilbur,” Bad nodded, and went up the stairs towards the room.

“So...” Phil spoke up once Bad was out of earshot. “How do you know him?”

“Bad? When I stayed around the village here he let me work to earn some coin,” Tommy hummed, plopping himself down in front of the fireplace in the dining room filled with many tables. “Mostly wiping down tables and sweeping the floors. He tried to get me to stay, but I knew I had to keep moving. He’s alright, for a human.”

Tubbo gave him an amused and slightly confused look as he sat down next to him. “But he’s not human?”

Tommy, for once, was shocked into silence, staring at Tubbo with utter bafflement on his face. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“He’s not human,” Tubbo raised an eyebrow at him. “He smells like fire, like you do. But he smells like a warm kitchen fire while you smell like a forest fire.”

“Tubbo has a great sense of smell, it’s a bee thing,” Techno piped in as he crouched down next to the fireplace.

“You’re making it sound like he’s a phoenix,” Tommy said slowly, as if still trying to process the information. “But he couldn’t have hid his wings the entire time I knew him.”

“Well, you technically hid your wings the entire time you knew him, so it’s a possibility,” Wilbur pointed out.

“Okay!” Bad piped up as he descended the stairs. He was holding two keys in his hand that had little paper tags on them. Immediately, they stopped their conversation. “I have two rooms for you guys. They both have pretty wide beds in them, and one has a couch, so they should fit all of you. Since the sun’s about to rise, I won’t charge you for today, but if you stay again tonight it’ll be 36 coin for both rooms per night. I’ll lower it if you guys help around the inn.”

“Of course, thanks for the last minute rooms Bad,” Tommy gave him a grin. “You’re the best.”

“Don’t let Dream hear you say that,” Bad chuckled, passing him the keys. “Go get some sleep. I’ll leave some breakfast out for you all whenever you wake up.”

“Thanks again, Bad,” Tommy pulled everyone upstairs, humming to himself as he checked the numbers on the keys.

“I’m not sharing with Wilbur again,” Techno announced as they got up the stairs. “He snores too loud.”

“I do not!” Wilbur squawked indignantly.

“Quiet,” Tommy elbowed them both in the ribs without looking up from the keys. “We aren’t the only people here. Bad’ll get upset if we wake anyone up.”

“I call the couch,” Phil said in a much quieter tone than either Wilbur or Techno used.

“And I call sharing with Tommy,” Tubbo grinned, latching onto Tommy’s arm.

“So you are sleeping with Wilbur,” Tommy shot Techno a smirk and passed Phil one of the keys. “I think this is the one with the couch. If it’s not, let me know and we’ll switch. Number on the door corresponds with the number on the keys.”

Phil nodded and went to unlock the door that the key belonged to.

Tommy unlocked the door to the key that he had, and sure enough, he’d guessed correctly about which room had the couch. Once he and Tubbo were inside, he locked the door behind them so no one could get in and placed the key on a table next to the bed. It was larger than the bed he’d had at Phil’s, and it would comfortably fit both him and Tubbo.

Tubbo immediately flopped onto the bed, humming and clutching the comforter as he let his wings out.

Tommy smiled at him and took off the coat, climbing into bed next to him and wiggling underneath the warm covers.

As soon as he laid down, Tubbo nestled underneath Tommy’s wing.

“You’re really warm,” Tubbo mumbled sleepily, running a hand through Tommy’s feathers.

“I’m aware,” Tommy shivered, closing his eyes.

They fell asleep like that, a tangle of limbs underneath the sheets of a bed for the first time in what felt like forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is over 150 pages in my writing app i hope y’all know.
> 
> WE GOT PHIL TO 1 MILLION!!! POGGERS!!!!


	18. Chapter 18

Tommy was warm.

He was with Tubbo, tangled together in a web of limbs like they used to do when they were kids back at the orphanage. That place had never been warm, so sharing a bed that was barely big enough for one scrawny kid (let alone two) was a given, even if it wasn’t very comfortable.

Him and Tubbo sharing that small cot was probably the only reason Tubbo survived the day that place burned down. If he’d been anywhere else, with anyone else, he probably wouldn’t have made it.

Tommy shuddered, trying to push those thoughts... those MEMORIES away.

Tubbo mumbled something sleepily into his shoulder, his grip on him tightening as if he thought Tommy was going to leave

Maybe Tommy was a little overprotective of him. But back then, they only had each other. After the fire, when he had thought Tubbo was dead, it was like someone had ripped one of his arms off.

And then he found him, albeit years later. Everything seemed right again. And then he lost him. And then found him once more.

Their lives had been moving too fast, fast enough to not allow them to process what was truly happening. Finally, finally, Tommy didn’t have to worry about whether they were going to live to see the next morning. He didn’t have to worry about making sure everyone got another meal.

He could just stay, and live in the moment for the first time in forever.

So he did.

Tommy didn’t let himself worry about what they were going to do next, he just buried his face into Tubbo’s hair and held him just a bit tighter. An irrational fear nagged at the back of his head, trying to tell him that someone was going to take him away. He ignored it.

Tubbo was here, right now, and that’s all that mattered.

Tommy let his eyes fall shut as Tubbo hummed against him, wings twitching as he woke up.

Tubbo shifted slightly, and Tommy whined in protest, his grip tightening further.

Tubbo started laughing, quietly. “And you called me the clingy one,” he teased, his voice muffled from where he was pressed against Tommy.

“You were the clingy one,” Tommy retorted softly. “Back then.”

“‘Cause you were the warmest person to share a bed with,” Tubbo sounded amused. “And ‘cause we’re close. I knew you better than anyone there.”

“I knew it. You only like me because I give off heat,” Tommy said sarcastically, in a dramatic tone. “Oh, the betrayal.”

“Shut up, dumbass,” Tubbo said affectionately, and Tommy felt one of Tubbo’s hands start playing with the feathers close to his back.

He shivered, melting into the touch as another wave of heat came off of him. He heard Tubbo start laughing again.

“I’m not sure if you’re wings are just sensitive or if you just are that touch-starved that you put out heat every time someone plays with your feathers,” Tubbo teased.

“Probably that second option. But don’t you dare tell the others.”

“You’re allowed to want to be touched, Tommy,” Tubbo said gently, turning serious. “If you want cuddles, just ask. You know any of us are willing to do it.”

“It’s awkward,” Tommy mumbled.

“Then don’t ask directly,” Tubbo offered. “Just, have a signal or something. That way we know when you need some help.”

Tommy fidgeted slightly, humming an agreement. “Later...”

“Okay,” Tubbo continued to mess with Tommy’s wings, gently running his fingers through the feathers.

“I feel like I should be concerned,” Tommy noticed that his wings were subconsciously arching into Tubbo’s hand. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that. “After the horror story Phil told me yesterday.”

“I was nine, it was literally the same week he rescued me,” Tubbo said defensively. “You’d never let me preen your wings before. I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing. I basically just grabbed a handful of his feathers and pulled. I know better now. Plus, I’m not preening you. I’m essentially just petting you.”

“I take offense to being “petted”,” Tommy protested.

“I will stop,” Tubbo threatened.

“Please don’t.”

Tubbo laughed, but was nice and continued to play with Tommy’s feathers instead of stopping.

Unfortunately, as much as they both would have liked to stay like that for eternity, the real world always catches up to you.

A soft knocking at the door yanked them both out of the peaceful moment. Tommy jolted upright, snatching his nearby coat and throwing it on. By the time he’d stood up, his wings and were completely hidden by it and his axe was once again stuck through his belt and covered by the coat.

He glanced backward, making sure Tubbo’s wings were hidden, before he unlocked and opened the door.

Phil stood there, looking tired, but not as stressed as he had been these... had it been weeks? Tommy wasn’t sure.

“I would’ve let you sleep in longer, but Bad said he needed to talk to you,” Phil informed him. “It sounded important.”

Tommy grunted in acknowledgement, rubbing the sleepiness out of his eyes and glancing back at Tubbo worriedly. Tubbo rolled his eyes at him, giving him an exasperated look and climbing out of bed.

“Overprotective,” Tubbo mock-whispered, elbowing him in the side. Tommy smacked his arm away.

Phil stared at them, an amused look in his eye. “Bad left out breakfast. Stop fighting and let’s go.”

Snickering, the two teens followed Phil downstairs and into the large dining room that they had been in briefly the previous night. The fire in the fireplace was burning low, but before Tommy could fix it, it jumped up on its own, leaving Tommy to stare at his hands in sleepy confusion wondering if that had been him or someone else.

The dining room was surprisingly empty, but a quick glance out the window informed Tommy that it was about midday, and everyone would have finished breakfast by that point.

The only table that was occupied was the one that Wilbur and Techno sat at. Wilbur was staring blankly at a mug of what seemed to be coffee in between his hands and Techno was slumped over on the table, snoring softly. There was a tray of muffins on the table in front of them, and crumbs littering the table signaling that Wilbur and Techno had eaten some.

“Tommy!” Bad chirped from the door to the kitchen, and Tommy turned to spot him. “Over here! Grab a muffin first, obviously, but come here!”

Tommy glanced at the others, who shrugged in his direction. Techno didn’t even move, his snoring pausing slightly before continuing as if nothing had happened. Too tired to really question it, Tommy grabbed a muffin off the tray and stuffed half of it in his mouth as he made his way over to the kitchen.

He entered, finding only Bad inside as he took off his apron.

And then the door shut behind him.

That woke him up.

Tommy immediately stiffened, turning around and finding Dream standing by the door, mask on. George and Sapnap peeked their heads around the corner as well.

Tommy did not like this.

His wings twitched beneath his coat, feathers shifting as they instinctively tried to open, but couldn’t. Tommy’s hand kept shaking slightly, wanting to rest on the axe strapped to his hip but not let the others be aware that he had one.

Yes, these were the people who’d been nothing but (mostly) nice to him in the few weeks he’d been in this village. But Tommy wasn’t an idiot. People can change in three months. He was an example of that. No longer a scrawny, thieving kid who didn’t care for anyone.

“So,” Bad said in a surprisingly cheerful voice. Tommy shifted his body onto the defensive, keeping them all in his field of vision.

That’s when he noticed the black feathers that were slowly emerging from behind Bad.

His eyes widened, and he blinked rapidly.

Two large, black, feathered wings were now present behind Bad, shifting slightly in the way wings often did when you first take them out.

Then he spotted the pair of dark brown, leathery wings that were behind Sapnap as well.

That wasn’t right. Neither of them were wingfolk. They were human. They were HUMAN.

“Want to take off the coat, Tommy?” Dream suggested, in a tone that made it obvious that it was not a suggestion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I havent responded to comments yet I know I'm sorry I'll do it soon I promise  
> Sorry for taking so long on this one.
> 
> @Rose12610 on Twitter


	19. Chapter 19

Tommy’s hand immediately flew to his axe and was about to tug it out when he saw George elbow Dream in the ribs, and Dream started laughing.

“What? It’s funny!” Dream wheezed, as both George and Bad glared at him. Sapnap looked like he was trying not to laugh as well.

“Stop it, you’re scaring him,” George said sternly.

Dream glanced at Tommy, who had finally gotten the axe out of his belt loop and had backed up into the counter, tightening his grip on the wooden handle, but not raising it just yet.

“Tommy,” Bad said gently. “You can put that down.”

Tommy fixed him with a glare. “You can do what you want to me, but you hurt a single hair on their heads and you’ll be gone before you even know what’s happening,” he said softly, in a dangerous tone.

“No one’s hurting anyone,” George said grumpily. “Dream’s being a dramatic little shit.”

“Hey!” Dream said indignantly.

“Language,” Bad sighed.

“Starting over,” Sapnap rolled his eyes. “Tommy, you don’t have to wear the damn coat. As you can see,” Sapnap gestured to himself and Bad. “No one here’s going to hurt you. If anything, George is about to strangle Dream, but no one’s going to hurt you or your friends.”

“He can try,” Dream scoffed, and George spun around to glare at him.

“Menaces, all of you,” Tommy rolled his eyes, trying to push away the adrenaline that was beating through his veins. He stuck the axe through his belt loop once more, pulling the coat over it to conceal it. “You gave me a heart attack.”

“You know we aren’t going to hurt you, right?” Bad asked gently. “We would never.”

“Habit,” Tommy grunted noncommittally. “Since when have you and Sapnap been wingfolk?”

“Since always,” Sapnap scoffed. “Bad wanted to hide it until you were comfortable enough to show us your wings yourself. Then you took off.”

“Why are you showing me now?” Tommy tilted his head. “How did you know about me being wingfolk?”

“You showed up with four others who were all hiding wings? And half of you are injured,” Bad gave him an exasperated look. “Honestly, all of you are terrible at hiding it. The blonde one is the only one I’m not a hundred percent sure about having wings. The rest of them are so obvious.”

“You were the easiest to notice,” George offered. “Even if me and Dream are human, we could tell before Bad or Sapnap told us. That’s mostly only because we’ve been hanging out with them so long, and the others, of course.”

“Others?” Tommy echoed.

“You really don’t know at all?” Dream sounded skeptical. “Most everyone here is wingfolk too. Niki, Eret, Skeppy, and Quackity all are.”

“All of them?” Tommy was confused. “How the hell haven’t you been found?”

“Oh, we have,” Sapnap grinned, throwing an arm around Bad’s shoulders. “But the big scary phoenix that burns anyone who hurts the village to the ground tends to scare them off.”

“It’s not something to be proud of,” Bad shoved Sapnap with an annoyed look on his face. “I do what I have to do to keep you all alive.”

“So Tubbo was right,” Tommy tugged at the sleeves of the coat nervously. “He said you smelled like fire. He noticed almost as soon as you walked in early this morning that you weren’t human.”

“Sharp sense of smell,” Dream commented. “Sounds like Skeppy.”

“What are you doing back, anyways?” George asked. “You ran off, gave Bad gray hairs from how much he was worrying about you-” George got smacked over the head by Bad for that comment. “-And then show up three months later with four others, lying and saying they’re your family when I remember you distinctly telling us that you didn’t have one.”

“They are my family,” Tommy spat, annoyance ruffling through him. “At least, they are now. I wasn’t lying about that.”

“That’s all that I need to know related to that,” Bad stomped on Dream’s foot before he could ask another question. “I’m sure they’re great, and if you trust them Tommy, then I trust them too. And so should you,” Bad sent a sharp look to Dream, Sapnap, and George.

“Well, what made you come back?” Sapnap asked. “I’m curious too.”

“A bunch of humans burned down where we were staying,” Tommy bristled slightly at the memory. “We managed to hole up for a while, but food ran out. This was the only place I could think of that I could keep them the safest at. The original plan I had was to build a house outside town, like what we had at the other village. Now I’m not sure if there’s much of a point.”

“So you’re staying then?” Dream asked.

Tommy nodded hesitantly. “That’s the idea. It’s either here or we end up out in the woods for the winter, and I can’t sustain them on that.”

They fell silent after that, seeming to have nothing to say.

Then...

“You’re a phoenix, aren’t you?” Bad asked, looking him up and down.

Tommy blinked, before shifting backwards slightly, fiddling with the coat sleeves. “Is it obvious?”

“Only to me,” Bad reassured him, causing the other three to immediately start protesting. They fell silent when Bad shot them a look, though. “It’s only because of the way you talk about your family, and the way you didn’t even blink when Sapnap told you I was a phoenix. Phoenixes are widely considered to be myths, among wingfolk and humans alike. The fact that you didn’t react at all when you were told I was one made me think you’re either a phoenix or one of them out there are.”

“Nah, it’s just me,” Tommy felt his wings flutter beneath the coat again. “Speaking of, if I know them at all, which I do, they’re going to be wondering what the fu- heck’s taking so long.”

“Go, then,” Dream kicked at his shins gently, startling Tommy enough that he laughed. “And take off the damn coat. No one around here is going to hurt you. I doubt they could, anyway.”

Tommy waved them off until they let him open the door to the kitchen, tugging at the coat sleeves as he mentally debated if he really should just take it off.

“And stop getting so damn tall,” Sapnap complained from behind him. “I swear. We were eye level last time I saw you.”

“I’ve grown maybe an inch since I was here last,” Tommy deadpanned. “It’s not my fault you, George, and Bad are short.”

“I am not!” George squawked.

“You are,” Dream wheezed, then yelping when George kicked at his knees.

Tommy rolled his eyes, looking away from them and spotting Phil, Techno, Wilbur, and Tubbo all staring at him varying degrees of confusion, tiredness, and surprise.

Tubbo though, had a smirk on his face.

“Told you he wasn’t human,” Tubbo said in a sing-song tone. “I didn’t know about the other one, though.”

“To be fair, I didn’t either,” Tommy grumbled, plopping himself down at the table.

Techno seemed unsurprised, as he usually did. He just seemed tired. One second Techno was shrugging, picking apart a muffin with his fingers, wings hidden. Then, in the next second, Techno’s wings were out, stretching before loosely folding behind him.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Techno grunted when he received surprised looks from Phil and Wilbur. “They’re wingfolk. Tommy trusts ‘em. And at this point, if they’re gonna try and kill us, let them try. They won’t get very far.”

“I take offense to that,” Dream said defensively.

“You take offense to everything,” George snapped.

The two started to fight again, and Tommy lashed out with a well-aimed kick, that missed, but its the thought that counts.

“Anyways,” Tommy continued as if nothing happened. “Introductions. Dream, Sapnap, George, and Bad who you met last night.” He pointed to each one in turn. “Wilbur, Phil, Tubbo, Techno. There, I’ve done my bit.” Tommy slumped forward on the table, closing his eyes as he rested his head on his arms.

“No sleeping, you literally just woke up,” Tubbo complained, poking him in the side. “Well, probably like an hour ago. You were awake before me.”

“Something like that,” Tommy grumbled, pushing his hand away, but Tubbo just jab him more sharply instead.

Tommy was vaguely aware of other conversation occurring around him, but he didn’t pay attention to it. He just wanted to sleep some more. He hadn’t been getting a lot of it lately. Last night was probably the longest he’d slept in ages.

“Hey,” Phil whispered, leaning downwards. Tommy forced his eyes open and blinked at him tiredly. “I’m gonna take the coat off. Is that okay?”

Tommy shrugged nonchalantly, and he semi-helped Phil tug the coat down and off of himself. His wings stretched, glad to be free from not having to stay folded so tightly anymore, before he let them relax and curl into a more natural position. He was closing his eyes again when...

A pair of hands he didn’t recognize started combing through his feathers, moving quickly yet confidently. The hands weren’t as calloused as Wilbur and Techno’s, yet not as soft as Tubbo’s or Phil’s.

Tommy stiffened against the touch, his wings jerking away from it as he sat bolt upright. “Don’t,” Tommy said softly, and the hands immediately pulled away.

“Sorry,” Bad apologized. “They’re just really dull. I was trying to help.”

“It’s fine, just don’t... please,” Tommy stood up. “What can we do to help around the inn?”

“C’mon man, don’t ask that,” Sapnap whined. “We’re never going to get a chance to talk if Bad puts you to work.”

“That’s the point, Snapmap,” Tommy said dismissively, the tense air from just a moment before dissipating as they bantered.

“It’s SAPNAP,” Sapnap protested. “You know it’s Sapnap!”

George and Dream were snickering at this point.

Tubbo reached over and grabbed his hand, gently running his thumb over the back of Tommy’s hand.

“Well, some of you can help me in the kitchen,” Bad mused. “Dream and George are on laundry duty together but they never get anything done when they’re doing something together, so some of you can help them with that. And Sapnap, do you mind showing one of them how to keep the rooms clean?”

“Obviously not,” Sapnap rolled his eyes. “Less work for me if I’ve got a buddy.”

“Perfect!” Bad clapped his hands together. “With all the extra hands, we’ll be done in no time, and then we’ll have to get you to meet everyone!”

“Tommy, you are in no way, shape, or form going in that kitchen,” Wilbur gave him a pointed look. “You are going to give all of us gray hairs from your fascination with fiddling with the knives.”

“Oh don’t worry about that,” George scoffed. “Tommy’s been permanently banned from the kitchen.”

“It was only a small fire,” Tommy protested weakly.

“Bad had to put it out,” Dream deadpanned. “Honestly, I have no idea how you didn’t figure out he was a phoenix sooner when he literally extinguished it in front of you.”

Tubbo jumped up, his hands slamming onto the table. “I was right!” He cried. “I told you he was a phoenix!”

“I was kind of busy,” Tommy glanced away. Bad memories were just that, only memories. “I’ll help with the laundry.”

“I’m okay with helping clean the rooms,” Phil offered.

“I’ll go with kitchen,” Techno said, tiredly.

“Laundry!” Tubbo shouted, latching onto Tommy’s arm. “I call laundry.”

Wilbur coughed something that sounded suspiciously like “clingy”, but before Tommy could turn around and punch him, he was being dragged away by George.

“C’mon then, might want to get your coat, it’s cold outside,” George said briskly.

“Oh, I uh... don’t get cold? Most of the time anyway,” Tommy mumbled.

“You’re like Bad, I forgot,” George slapped a hand on his own forehead.

“This’ll be much warmer, then,” Dream drawled, seeming much more enthusiastic about the prospect of doing laundry now then earlier.

Tommy shot Tubbo an exasperated look, who just shrugged, as they followed the two humans outside and around the back of the building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve had 90% of this chapter written for SO LONG I just couldn’t write an ending properly lmao. Anyway, sorry for the delay.


	20. Chapter 20

“It is fucking freezing out here,” Dream said through his teeth, for the tenth time in the past thirty minutes.

“I know what you want me to do, and the answer is no,” Tommy snapped as he did the laundry. “Stop already.”

“Not even a little?” Dream whined, and with the mask on, it was a bit unsettling.

“No,” Tommy shot him a glare.

“Hey Tommy?” Tubbo chirped. “I’m cold.”

Tommy, knowing exactly what Tubbo was trying to do, sighed and wrapped one of his wings around Tubbo’s shoulders.

Tubbo immediately melted into the heat coming from Tommy’s feathers, and hummed contently.

“So you can do it for him but not for us?” George sounded annoyed, but Tommy deftly avoided his gaze.

“Yes,” Tommy didn’t even hesitate with responding. “Stop being a bitch.”

George immediately started to protest.

“He just likes me better,” Tubbo smirked at the two humans.

“That’s true, I do,” Tommy agreed.

“You’ve known him for what, a few months?” Dream whined again, and George elbowed him. “C’mon...”

“Actually we lived in the same orphanage for a while,” Tommy corrected him. “That place burned down when we were both about nine or so. I finally found him again a few months ago.”

George and Dream both suddenly fell silent, staring at him.

“What?” Tommy asked, looking up. George had an odd expression on his face, and Dream was... well... he was Dream. He was wearing a mask that covered his whole face. Tommy had no idea what he was thinking.

“Nothing, just thinking,” Dream said dismissively.

Tommy raised an eyebrow. “Not suspicious at all, Big D.”

“Is that who I think it is?” A familiar voice called, and Tommy looked up.

Niki was grinning from not far away. She sprinted over as soon as they made eye contact.

“You’re showing us your wings!” Niki said, a big smile on her face. “We were so worried Tommy, when you just took off one day.”

“I’m back now,” Tommy reassured her. “And we’re staying for the foreseeable future.”

“We?” Niki tilted her head, before finally seeming to spot Tubbo. “Oh! My mistake. I’m Niki! I own the bakery down the street.”

“This is Tubbo, my...” Tommy trailed off, glancing at Tubbo, who looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “My brother.”

Tubbo’s eyes widened, and he grinned. “Awww... big sap.”

“Shut up, dickhead,” Tommy shoved Tubbo’s face away. “I will stop, you know.”

“Don’t you dare!” Tubbo protested, grabbing at Tommy’s wing with his good arm and pulling it tighter around him.

“Maybe if you would fucking share, you wouldn’t have to worry about him stopping,” George complained.

“I’m confused,” Niki said, raising an eyebrow. “What?”

Tommy sighed, glancing at his feathers (when did they turn black again?) before turning one hand palm up, away from the clothes. He ignored Niki’s gasp as a small blue flame lit into his palm, curling around his fingers.

“Phoenix,” Tommy said tiredly. Niki was probably the person he trusted the most, after Tubbo, Wilbur, Phil, and Techno, so he didn’t mind telling her really. “They want me to warm up the air. I don’t want to pass out before we’re done, and I probably will if I heat up the air.”

“Actually, you won’t,” Tubbo said confidently, and Tommy felt Tubbo reach out and put a hand in his feathers.

“Tubbo...” Tommy said in a warning tone, the flame in his hand ceasing. “Do not.I am not-”

Tommy’s words immediately halted as Tubbo ran his fingers through his feathers teasingly. Tommy struggled to keep his feathers laying flat as a wave of heat came off of him.

“Not funny,” Tommy swallowed.

“Oh!” Niki seemed to brighten up. “Do you need to be preened? I can help.”

“No, I don’t, he’s just making fun of me,” Tommy glared at Tubbo, who was obviously trying not to laugh. “It’s ‘cause they found out whenever they run their fingers through my feathers I put out heat.”

“But you didn’t do that with Bad,” Dream pointed out. “We would’ve noticed.”

“Bad’s different,” Tommy shrugged. “I don’t know him as well, I guess. I don’t want him touching me. I guess since I didn’t like it, I didn’t put out heat.”

“Aww you like it when we pet you,” Tubbo teased.

“I will fucking burn you to ash without a second thought SHUT THE FUCK UP,” Tommy hissed, his cheeks turning red. Well, redder than they had been before.

“As amusing as this is,” Dream cut in, obviously trying to stop them from arguing further. “We are supposed to be doing laundry.”

“You two haven’t even done anything!” Tommy snapped. “It’s been me and Tubbo this whole time!”

“Boys,” Niki cut them off, sounding amused. There were two feathered wings behind her that DEFINITELY had not been there before. They were a soft blue-gray that was dappled with darker grey on the backs. The undersides were white with black speckles. “Tommy, are you okay with me touching them? I just want to see something.”

Tubbo’s hand immediately stilled and pulled away. Tommy swallowed and shrugged noncommittally, stretching out the wing that wasn’t wrapped around Tubbo in her direction.

Niki hesitantly ran a hand through his feathers. Her hand was soft, and much smaller than anyone else’s who touched his wings. He didn’t pull away, but no heat came off of him either.

“You’re feathers are really dull,” Niki commented, withdrawing her hand. “When was the last time you preened them?”

“Last night,” Tommy folded his wing again. “Bad said that too. I don’t know what you guys mean by that.”

“What about the time before?” Niki asked.

Tommy went silent. “I don’t think there was a time before,” he admitted quietly after a few moments.

“That would be why they’re so dull,” Niki explained. “I can show you how to take care of them properly later, if you want? I always make Eret and Fundy help with mine. I think Quackity does them himself, but he asks me sometimes.”

“I think Schlatt helps with Quackity’s, when he’s not being an arse,” George put in. “So like, once a month maybe.”

“Skeppy, George, Sapnap and I all help with Bad’s,” Dream offered. “We know how to do it too.”

“Uh... no thanks,” Tommy shifted. “Phil’s supposed to be teaching me. Techno and Wilbur will probably be forced to help. Tubbo’s not allowed though.”

“I told you, I was nine!” Tubbo protested. “I know not to do that now! It’s not like you ever let me touch your wings when we were kids.”

“For a reason,” Tommy gave him a pointed look. “Because you would pull on the feathers. That hurts, you know.”

“I wouldn’t have known! You never said anything!” Tubbo jabbed him in the ribs.

“Lesson learned, the four of you don’t get anything done,” Bad interrupted the conversation before Tommy could respond. All five of them jumped, not having realized Bad had shown up.

“It’s not my fault that those two were complaining about how cold it was the entire time,” Tommy grumbled, sending a glare towards Dream and George. “They kept trying to get me to heat everything instead of actually doing the work.”

“They were bugging you about it because they know they can get me to do it without much effort,” Bad hummed, also sending Dream and George a pointed look. “It doesn’t take much out of me to do it.”

“If it doesn’t take that much out of YOU, why was HE acting as if he was going to pass out if he did it?” George complained.

Tubbo immediately paused, narrowing his eyes at Tommy.

“Don’t look at me like that!” Tommy protested. “I’m fine, I promise. It’s just- It’s been- I’m not going to...”

“Last time you said that, you went gray like two hours later,” Tubbo pointed out. “I will forcibly shove food down your throat and that isn’t a threat, it’s a PROMISE.”

“I know, I know. Listen-” Tommy stammered. “I’m fine. It’s- I’m not starving okay? I’m just a bit tired, after everything. That’s all.”

“I’m confused, what’s happening here?” Dream interrupted.

“Nothing,” Tommy insisted. “I’m FINE.”

“Bullshit,” Tubbo announced. “You wouldn’t be so insistent about this if you were.”

“You don’t look gray,” Bad was studying him intensely, and Tommy wasn’t exactly sure how he felt about that. “I think he’s fine-”

“Thank you,” Tommy nodded.

“But,” Bad looked a little annoyed about being interrupted. “You are very thin. Thinner than... Tubbo, right?”

Tubbo nodded.

“I’m guessing once the food started to run out, you pushed more towards your family because you can come back and they can’t,” Bad finished. “Am I right?”

Tommy didn’t answer, stunned and irritated that Bad had managed to get it exactly right.

“Come on,” Bad gestured for him to get up. “I need to start prepping dinner for the town. I don’t mind spoiling the five of you a little more than the others, after what you’ve been through.”

“You told him?” Tubbo seemed surprised.

Tommy shrugged. “Told him some,” he grunted.

“And I don’t need to know the rest,” Bad reassured them. “Dream, George, finish up the laundry, muffinheads. Niki, would you like to come in for some tea?”

“Of course,” Niki agreed.

So that’s how Tommy found himself being dragged back inside, protesting that he was FINE and he wasn’t going to go gray, but he was ignored.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot write endings for the chapters of this fic I swear. I write like 90% of them and then struggle through the endings.
> 
> Also, I love the support y’all have been giving this fic! But the comments are starting to get overwhelming, responding to every single one. I might not respond to ALL of them after this, but I’ll still respond to most!


	21. Chapter 21

“You’ve been doing WHAT?” Phil demanded, causing Tommy to deftly avoid eye contact in favor of shoving another bite of food in his mouth.

“Bad described it as him shoving all the food towards us ‘cause he can come back but we can’t,” Tubbo offered, also sounding angry, but in a different way.

“Tommy,” Techno sighed. “Just because you can come back doesn’t mean we’re okay with you DYING.”

“You said you weren’t going to die again,” Wilbur was probably the one who had the most anger in his words than any of the others.

Tommy sighed. “And I didn’t. I’m not even close!”

“Last time you said you weren’t going to die soon, you ended up going gray mere hours later,” Techno reminded him.

“Yeah, so forgive us if we aren’t the most trusting in your judgement about when you’re dying,” Phil agreed.

“LISTEN!” Tommy snapped, irritation flooded through him as he slammed his fork down on the table in frustration. The four of them immediately jumped, staring at him with wide eyes. Well, Techno just kind of blinked at him, he didn’t jump. Nothing really seemed to phase Techno.

“Tommy, no fire in the inn,” Bad warned from the kitchen.

Tommy blinked, eyes narrowing in confusion. “I didn’t...” he glanced at his hands, finding no fire there. He looked back up at Bad for an answer.

“Wings,” Bad said plainly.

Tommy turned around, yelping slightly when he realized his wings were indeed, on fire. As soon as he saw it, the fire ceased, leaving smoke trailing from his feathers.

“I didn’t mean to do that,” Tommy said wryly, turning back around. He took a deep breath, before turning back around. “Listen,” he repeated, in a much softer voice. “You have to think of it from my perspective. Give all five of us equal amounts of food and watch you slowly starve to death, or push the majority of the food towards you four because “I” can come back if I do starve. Plus, I’m used to going hungry. You aren’t.” With that, he angrily shoved another bite of food in his mouth. He wasn’t even sure what exactly he was eating at this point. He didn’t really care.

“Tommy,” Tubbo said plainly. “You are one of the smartest, yet dumbest motherfuckers I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.”

That startled Tommy enough into nearly choking on his food. He managed to swallow it down instead of coughing, but he blinked at Tubbo in confusion.

“You really think we haven’t gone hungry before?” Techno asked skeptically. “We didn’t spend our entire lives in that house, Tommy. We found only a few years of sanctuary there. Not everything was sunshine and rainbows.”

“Don’t lecture him too much,” Bad offered, coming out with a tray that had bowls of soup on it. He put a bowl down in front of each of them, except Tommy since he already had something. “Its instinctual for him to want to protect you.”

That halted their conversation as everyone turned to Bad, especially Tommy, with confused looks on their faces.

“What?” Wilbur asked.

“Phoenixes are natural guardians,” Bad explained. “We were created to protect other wingfolk from humans. We have a natural inclination to value their lives over our own, thanks to our ability to come back and our instincts to protect them. If we form familial bonds with others, wingfolk or not, the instincts only become stronger. That’s why I’m so protective over Dream, Sapnap, George, and Skeppy. I protect the village overall, but those four I have a familial bond with, so its different.”

Tommy stared at him blankly, still rather confused.

“Well, now we know why you’re so overprotective of Tubbo,” Techno drawled.

“Oh, he definitely has a familial bond with all of you,” Bad shrugged. “He’s probably seen Tubbo hurt the most, and that’s why his instincts are stronger around him than anyone else.”

“...huh,” Tubbo mumbled.

“Huh is right,” Bad suddenly focused on Tommy. “Did you not know any of that?”

“Uh... no?” Tommy swallowed.

“Really?” Bad seemed bewildered. “Did your Cinders never tell you?”

“My what?”

“Cinders,” Bad repeated, seeming more and more stunned the more this conversation continued. “You know, the phoenix group you grew up in? Phoenixes are always born to human parents, so nearby phoenixes take the baby in and raise them in the parents’ stead. They’re your Cinders.”

“I grew up in an orphanage,” Tommy corrected him. “I didn’t even know I was a phoenix until I died for the first time.”

Bad just stared at him with a stunned look on his face, making Tommy slowly grow more and more uncomfortable with this situation.

“Still...” Bad finally said after a few moments. “Even if someone hadn’t found you as a baby, another phoenix should’ve passed through and been able to smell you and taken you in as a child.”

“Bad, do you know how rare phoenixes are nowadays?” Phil asked. “I thought they were a myth until I found out Tommy was one.”

“I thought so too,” Techno drawled.

“I didn’t even know they existed,” Tubbo offered.

“Me either,” Wilbur agreed.

Bad frowned. “Yes we’ve gone more into hiding, but we’re not as uncommon as you think. Someone should have passed by you and been able to smell you, Tommy. I just have no idea why they wouldn’t go and get you. The smell fades at about ten years old, so I had no clue that you were a phoenix when you arrived the first time.”

“Unlucky, I guess,” Tommy shifted uncomfortably and shoved food in his mouth before anyone could ask him any more questions. So his parents were human, that’s probably why he was dropped off at the orphanage.

This brought the conversation overall to a halt.

Before Niki spoke up.

“Is your wing torn?” She asked Wilbur, changing the subject, which Tommy was very grateful for.

“Uh, yeah,” Wilbur raised up the torn wing and winced. “Its still healing.”

“Eret could help you,” Niki offered. “They’re a butterfly too, they’ve torn their wing before. I can introduce you to him at dinner if you want?”

“Sure,” Wilbur shrugged.

“How is Eret?” Tommy asked, trying to switch to this subject instead. “How has everybody been? Anything exciting happen recently?”

“No, not really,” Niki started to say, before seeming to remember something. “Oh, Quackity was trying to do a joke or something and broke his wing. He’s been grumpy about not flying, as you can imagine.”

“How’d he manage to do that?” Tommy asked lightheartedly, with a mock-groan.

“He wouldn’t say,” Niki shrugged.

“You can ask him when he comes in for dinner,” Bad offered, and then shook his head with a sigh. “I swear, I feed the whole village.”

“You offered,” Niki reminded him.

“Hey Bad?” Tubbo asked, catching the phoenix’s attention. “Is it another phoenix thing for him to put out heat when we preen him?”

“TUBBO!” Tommy squawked indignantly. Phil and Wilbur started laughing, and Techno cracked a smile.

“Uh... no I don’t think so,” Bad hummed. “I don’t do that. I know that we naturally radiate heat, and when we’re comfortable we put out warmth. I’ve never heard of preening being related to putting out heat, but it’s possible that it’s just him being really comfortable whenever you do it.”

“I hate this conversation and would like to change the subject immediately,” Tommy said loudly, shoving food into his mouth again.

“Aww... you put out heat because you like it when we pet you,” Wilbur teased, and Tommy’s face flushed.

“Shut up.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The amount of support y’all are giving me through the comments is amazing! I love reading your comments so much, but I’m afraid I don’t think I can respond to every single one like I used to. From now on, I will be responding to some comments (such as ones that ask me a direct question or just ones I have the energy to respond to), but I will no longer be responding to every comment on these chapters. I’m really sorry about this. 
> 
> As for the chapter! We get some phoenix lore from Bad! Sorry this chapter took so long and that it’s on the shorter side. I’ve been worrying about burnout a lot, and I’ve been taking a break from uploading a majority of my fics in an effort to prevent myself from burning out. I will be trying to post something tomorrow and Friday in honor of the holidays! Not for this fic, unfortunately, but you can check them out when I post them.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m vibing today y’all. 
> 
> Comment your thoughts, I love responding to them.


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